Laser-Guided Argon Cannons - Andy

AY. This week, I started my internship at el Instituto de Ciencias Materiales de Madrid (ICMM) en la Universidad Autónoma. My first day, I learned about the contruction of these enormous machines that the scientists use to study atoms. Here are some below:

Each day, we heat the inside of machine to more than 400 degrees celsius to evaporate all the water and other impurities off the titanium dioxide plate inside the machine (the surface in which scientists study other materials.) Additionally, we aimed a laser at the plate, and shot a ray of Argon at the surface to remove other impurities. Tomorrow, we will examine a material called PTCDI upon this newly cleaned surface. An Italian student at the university is studying this material for his thesis. It has qualities that make it very well-suited to be in a solar panel. Since silicon has environmental costs, this could be a greener alternative. These are the machines we used to do this

Above is the student studying for his thesis (left) and the chief lab technician, Gonzalo, on the right.

At first, it was near impossible to understand what was happening with the machine, since my scientific vocabulary was pretty limited in Spanish. However, now I know terms like electron cannon (cañón de electrones), photovoltaic cells  (células fotovoltaicas), and titanium dioxide surface (superficie de dióxido de titanio). My brain is overloaded (sobrecargado).

Although I never got to use it, below is my favorite piece of equipment in the lab.

-Andy