The Waiting Game

Have been awaiting responses from contacts regarding e-beam lithography and the etching for quite a while now.  I have said it before, but one of the most frustrating things about research is coordinating schedules with more or equally busy people.  To use try and use my time wisely I have continued reading papers about self assembled monolayers and looked for ways to improve the sphere layering techniques I have come up with so far.  The 50 nm beads, while a monolayer, are still the hardest to perfect.  I feel as though there may be some limitations with my set up that prevent the further improvement upon the smallest beads.  However, oxygen etching can be used to shrink spheres that are already on the smaller end of the spectrum (100 nm) to get spheres are 50 or smaller.  The pillars will be spaced further apart if this route is used but that may even work to our advantage in limiting the amount of interaction between sphere monophologies which will be forming on the pillar surfaces.  

I am going to continue trying to reach my contacts in order to move forward as quickly as possible.  In previous posts I have stated my goals for June.  While there is still time to complete these goals, I am currently at the mercy of others and I am not enjoying this goals being at the mercy of the schedules of others.  I will continue working to those goals anyway and make new ones when necessary to work towards getting our questions answered.