Journeys for Knowledge

Over the last few weeks I have been able to take more time to properly cook dinner. I have also been looking into recipes I can make in bulk with the limited produce I have access to during the seasons. This resulted in some rather interesting results, including a variant of jambalaya and polenta that sustained me for many days. I did mix in some Indian dishes as well, mixing in western food helps me appreciate my family’s recipes that much more.

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Unlike my other rotations, this term my work is mostly based in the lab. My goal is to understand how to best grow crystal films for use in solar cells. Since there is very little known about the exact science underlying the growth process for these crystals, I have to go through a lot of trial and error, iterating through samples until I arrive at something novel. This post will summarize just one of those many iterations.

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The first thing to be aware of is that these crystals are very sensitive. Too much exposure to air will cause the crystals to degrade, so to safeguard against that, I have to prepare the samples in a clean room. This requires me to put on a full body suit as shown above. In addition, inside this already filtered clean room, I synthesize these crystals inside a nitrogen filled glove box. By mixing two precursor chemicals and spinning them onto a small piece of glass, I can uniformly spread the solution as the crystals grows.

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The result is shown below, though these were not the best examples, another reason why I have to do this process so many times. Some samples come out so bad that there’s no point using them further, but for those that are decent, I move on to measuring their characteristics.

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 The first step is to determine how well ordered of a crystal we have. This is most easily measured by looking at X-ray diffraction. A beam of X-rays is fired at an angle to the sample, and based on the type of crystal structure, peaks in the reflection will appear based on the amount of that structure type.

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 Once the samples have been measured for their crystallinity, the next step is to look at the surface in more detail to see how smooth the samples are. Smooth of course is a relative term, but for these studies we would like the roughness to be on the order of nanometers. To do this, we need a very precise instrument known as an Atomic Force Microscope. The main implement is a very time cantilever, which is positioned just above the sample but not in direct contact with it. The electromagnetic repulsion from the surface affects the cantilever’s resonance, which can then be measured as a magnitude. This allows an extremely detailed surface map to be made, so long as the system is protected from external vibrations.

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 Once the map is made, the mean height of the surface can be used to quantify the roughness of the surface, and with any luck individual crystal grains can also be measured. The largest grains I have ever made were one micron, which may not sound like much, but every small step is something to be celebrated in this line of work.

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Indeed it has been some time since my last post, and quite a bit has happened. In the period between then and now, I’ve returned home, started a new project, and begun to contemplate my future thesis. So let’s dive in shall we?

My three week visit home will be the only time I return to the US this entire year. The gravity of that fact did not hit me until I was about to leave. While at home I fell back into my old routine of laziness and general indulgence, but when it came time to say goodbye to my friends and family, the phrase “See you later” truly meant later in life, with the real possibility of there being years in between. Coming home is like re-calibrating a tool, it’s only when you reset to zero do you realize just how much you’ve changed. I’m been required to make a home for myself in Japan, and I truly do enjoy it, but the Bay Area will always be the reference by which I measure myself.

Of course I would not disappear for three weeks from OIST without finishing my previous project, and despite my reservations, my genetics professor was quite pleased with my results. With that wrapped up, I started a new project in a solar cell lab. They aspire to design new cheaper solar cells based on specially designed crystals. Which most people in the unit focus on the device side of this problem, I was tasked with investigating the crystal’s material properties. Too often in applied science research focus on the how, but never stop to consider the why. This is partly why I enjoy physics so much, because we cannot move forward without truly understanding the mechanism behind what we observe. Since my new professor understands this, he has given me free reign to design what ever experiments I deem fit, a level of freedom I have not enjoyed since Berkeley. Sure enough, I’m having a wonderful time in lab, going into the clean room creating real films and studying them with x-rays and sensitive microscopes. After today’s set of experiments, I will post a more detailed walk through my routine.

Of course this lab is not where I will ultimately end up, for that place has already been taken by my first rotation unit. Although I do not have a set project yet, the professor has said I can work whatever instrument I want, and he will assist me. He has even allowed me to attend a workshop on accelerator design, despite losing personal interest in them after 20 years in the field. In the coming months I will work to determine a proper thesis topic, so I can get started as soon as my current rotation ends. PhD life is always fraught with delays, so it would be nice to preempt these pitfalls for once.

Over the weekend, I had intended to mostly rest at home and work on personal projects. Needless to say, things didn’t exactly go to plan, and I ended up joining friends for a trip to the northern part of the island to visit an azalea park.  The park was putting on a small festival to celebrate the azalea’s blooming.

Although the weather was a bit inclement, the vibrant colors of the blossoming flowers shined through the mist. Most parks have a variety of plants that all bloom at different times, giving visitors something pleasant to see no matter what season they visit. However, there is something uniquely breathtaking in seeing a park bloom as one. It never ceases to amaze me how such small but satisfying gems lie scattered around this island.

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This post is a bit delayed bit to a very busy schedule, but as I alluded to last time, I have recently completed another Gundam model. This one’s name is Gundam GP-01 Full Vernian. This title comes from the word vernier, which is a a secondary thruster used for mobility in space. Similarly, this model is equipped with a large backpack thruster to enhance its agility. Similar to the Justice Gundam I built last here (shown below for scale), the GP-01 was a more complex build with many intricate parts and an internal frame.

Of course that’s just the standard build, to take one step further into customization, I filled in what are called panel lines. These are thin lines along the armor that help accentuate detailed patterns, but must be painted in to stand out. Instead of simply cutting pieces out and putting them together, I now had to clean each piece, apply an ink pen to flow through the lines, clean the excess ink, and then build each part. This means the build process took much longer, so I spaced it out over two weeks, working one or two hours each night.

Overall, this was a much more sustainable way to work on models while busy with work. Soon I will be building my first custom painted model, which will require even more time. But with each new step, I get that much closer to building a unique model of my own design.

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Every so often OIST hosts outings to help people become acquainted with Okinawa and local attractions. This weekend they were organizing a group to go out on the ocean and watch whales. Given how unique of an opportunity this is, it was hard to refuse. Skip to the bottom of this post for the photos, but I will include the videos throughout.

Leaving port, we set a course due west to catch up with the other boats who were scouting ahead. After half an hour of traveling, with the island a distant blur behind us, we finally made contact with a school of whales coming up for air.

The whales were surprisingly active, constantly coming up and down, showing off their tails for all to see. Some were even showing their tails, as you can see below.

We were out there for a total of 4 hours, with most of the time spent just watching the whales and slowly adjusting course to follow their surfacing. Multiple times we were about to return home, just before a new whale came out to beckon us back. Some of the best shows were in the last hour in fact.

One whale gave a particularly entertaining show. It would launch its tail out so fast it would flip over, and proceed to whack its tail on the ocean surface upside down. At first I thought the whale was genuinely in trouble, but it turns out it was perfectly capable of rolling over, only to flip itself over again. This repeated for about 5 minutes, before it finally became tired and swam back down.

Finally heading home, we had half an hour to reflect on everything we had witnessed. These whales pass through Okinawa for mating season, peacefully passing by while we drive our boats above them. As we were slowly trying to follow them, they actually approached closer and closer to our boats. One even came out head first right next to us, splashing down and rolling around before submerging again. Reaching Okinawa again, we were treated to a unique view of Cape Manza from the ocean, worn away and hollowed out over the years.

Having spent most of my evenings this past week working on a new Gundam project (more on that soon), it was immensely refreshing to get out on the ocean and just get away from everything. I hope to find more excuses to get out on the ocean as the weather warms up.

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Sakura is the Japanese name for the cherry blossom, one of the most famous natural occurrences in Japan. Thousands of people turn out for the cherry blossoms blooming, especially because the blossoms last so very briefly. Although cherry blossom season is usually in February and March, down in Okinawa it hits as soon as January. My friends and I drove up to the closest site to take in the ephemeral sight, and just relax away from the lab with a local festival. Although I have been traveling a lot, I honestly have not seen much of Okinawa itself, so this was a step in the right direction.

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For the past few months, I had become more involved with a solar car team at a local middle school. The teacher had approached OIST asking for assistance in preparing their car for one last race in the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge, before finally retiring the car. Given my previous experience with my old solar car team in Berkeley, I felt I was in a unique position to help. OIST felt the same way, and allowed me to attend the race to assist the team as they tried to qualify.

By the time I arrived, the car was steadily being repaired, with lots of help from other teams. Fresh off of a restful 10 hour flight, I jumped in and fixed up the car so by the afternoon it could participate in the timed lap trials at Yas Marina Circuit preceding the race. To manage the timing, each team had a representative in the timing room to monitor the laps. It was encouraging to hear support from all the other teams, who were happy to see we were finally making it out onto the track.

The race itself was quite exciting, mostly taking part out in the western region of the UAE. Although we could not race the first day, we did start the second out in the desert and drove for most of the day. That evening the event organizers held a giant banquet for all the teams, and housed everyone for the night is a large tent with a carpet bottom. Not exactly a typical desert camping experience, but near enough as one can get these days.

The last day of the race was short, but with all the teams finishing we packed up and moved back into the city to pack and rest up for the awards ceremony the next day. The official awards ceremony was actually the next evening, but the organizers wanted to show off the solar cars at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit, which has illustrious guests including President el-Sisi, and Al Gore. After exploring the exhibition halls and eating a quick lunch, I took my first real nap since I arrived in Abu Dhabi. Before this I was averaging 3 hours of sleep a night, simply from all the work and how early each day we need to get up. Refreshed, I headed out to the true awards ceremony, to trade team shirts and say goodbye to all the new friends I had made. With one final effort to pack the car, I returned to my hotel room exhausted, but relieved of duty.

Waking up late for once (7 AM), I spent my final day in Abu Dhabi wandering Yas Mall, looking at the overall extravagance and collecting from small souvenirs for friends back in Japan. I tried to do as little as possible on this final day, recovering physically and mentally from the last week. Upon my return, I still felt weakened, and I do not know how much it will take t orecover from the sleep deprivation, but in time all will be well.

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I’m surprised I had not figured this out sooner, but if you would like to receive email notifications when I publish a post (given my erratic schedule), you can subscribe to a mailing list in the About Me page of this blog. I hope this makes your life easier as much as it has mine.

My final day in Tokyo was a fairly quiet one. I needed to go to the airport in the evening, so I spent the morning up in Ueno just to see what was there. What I found was very similar to my first day in London, when I explored the museum district and Hyde Park. Ueno also had a large park, complete with a shrine in the middle of a reed filled lake and museums along the edges. Although there was no time to enter these museums, I’m glad I familiarized myself with this area in case I ever return for an exhibition. I feel it was a nice way to end my time in Tokyo, leaving the door open for future adventures.

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