Saturday, June 12, 2010

First week back at IMEC

The research I'm working on is based partly on the work that we do in the Gracias lab at Johns Hopkins University. Recently, we developed a method to develop self-assembled patterned nanoparticles (as seen in a recent paper by Cho. et al. in "Self-assembly of lithographically patterned nanoarticles," Nanoletters 9, 12, 4049-4052 (2009)). In the Gracias lab, we specialize in the self-assembly of 3-dimensional structures on the micro and, as evidenced in the aforementioned paper, nano scale. Back at Hopkins, we have little access to any means to spectroscopically characterize our structures. The group I'm working with at IMEC specializes in a field called plasmonics and they have access to numerous instruments capable of characterizing the optical properties of nanostructures. Essentially, we're characterizing structures we've fabricated in the Gracias lab (and also here at IMEC) with IMEC's equipment.

This past week has been fairly busy actually, considering it was the first full week I was back. A month ago, I shipped over some samples we made at JHU to IMEC. A member of the group over here took some preliminary measurements and for much of this week, he aided me in continuing to take measurements of the samples. I ended up working a couple 12-13 hour days to work on the measurements.

Anyway, quick update on what my blog will be focusing on for much of the summer. I'm probably not going to be traveling as much this time, so I won't be adding a lot of pictures of what foods I've been eating. Instead, I'll probably just be posting pictures of whatever buildings I find interesting. I recently got a DSLR, so hopefully I can try and improve my nonexistent photography skills.

If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post in the comments!

3 comments:

  1. but the food pics were great!
    FOOOOOOOOOD NOM NOM NOM

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  3. Nice blog !!! gave a real feel or work and tourism environment in and around IMEC !

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