1. MBE Upgrades What upgrades? – Change cell type to have a more narrow openning – QCM to determine Ti flux and quicker calib. Why (in general) need to do these upgrades? – Better control of Sr, Ba & Ti fluxes – Too much variation from time shutter opens because of built up pressure Why will these upgrades help me achieve growth of BTO dots? – More control of flues, the better I’m able to control formation of dots or influence their changes

2. MBE Upgrades Progress New cells will not be changed until further growths of BTO dots Why? – If we change cells now, we will delay possible discoveries now – Changing cells takes time; we have to vent chamber – Changing cells also implies changes in growth conditions and discovering them for the new setup takes time Does this make sense to me? – Yes

3. MBE Upgrades Prep Preparing for changing cells – Hooking up Eurotherm controllers: ordered, receieved, installed comm cards; wired all power and comm cables togther; successfully communicated with computer and updated some of thermocouple types Learned to turn off power when wiring and working with devices Learned that I always need to know specifics of devices – always do careful homework; it prevents frustration and losing time Learned about patience in overcoming “trivial” challenges Learned about frustrations in understanding standards

4. MBE Upgrades Prep More about Eurotherm Controllers – Develop a tutorial on how to order and hookup a eurotherm controller and power supply Why work on Eurotherm controllers now? – When cells are installed, all we have to do is hook them up to the cells rather than wait and delay Lambda power supplies – Made power cords and ran neatly to avoid clutter – Learned about appropriate size wire for current drawing – Why use Lambda? – good reputation

5. MBE Upgrades Prep Should we swap Veeco power supplies with Lambda power supplies? – I propose we do when we change out the cells According to experience with Nitride group, Veeco power supplies fail; I would rather prevent power failure even if in requires a little more delay now Because we will know how to hook up Eurotherm and Lambda power supplies with other six no problem Should we get a La & Al cell? – Dr Chakhalian says that not possible to chemically etch LAO substrate to get atomically flat – Use to grow a buffer layer that will allow for BTO dots form

6. Substrate Prep BTO Dot growth – MgO  found paper Started trying to replicate – LaAlO3  talked to Dr Chakhalian sinec I know his group has tried Cannot prep chemically for atomic steps TEM – STO  need to replicate Dr Chakhalian’s work Why? – need to look at interface of homoepitaxy growth to get good experience in oxide cross sectional TEM – Had many problems when trying others

7. XPS Why trying to use it? – Want to evaluate composition of surfaces and changes made to them for substrate preparation and determination of dot composition – Need to be able to differentiate between such things as SrO and TiO2 and STO Not sure have a good plan of how to use it to evaluate surface – Have one paper that seems to use it, but don’t fully understand analysis Develop expertise in capabilities – Need to do depth profiling tests

8. Proposal Committee – Found Dr Ulrich to be on committee – Need to finalize Dr Bellaiche and Chakalian Outline Development – Started using Project to help plan  it helps me think about things more easily – Have not spent time researching individual topics to come up with good ideas to propose Why I have not progressed much farther? – I don’t break it down one step at a time and tackle it – Hard time balancing work and getting this done