Photoresponse in nanowires!!

Well, we finally got a photoresponse out of our nanowires.
The I-V curve is below -- more current when more light is shining on them! Also, strangely non-linear behaviour -- perhaps a schottky barrier at one end between the Pt-Si.

short wire (1.3 μm) -- massive photoresponse at saturation. The sample was gently shaded with Al foil, still a lot of light leaking in for the dark curve, and just room light for the light curve (more current)

long wire (6.1 μm) -- very small photoresponse, quite good diode action

Unfortunately the contacts melted during annealing, but we might yet be able to fix that.

Argh

Argh. Job interview yesterday. Lots of technical questions; I'd come across similar problems previously for almost all of them. Unfortunately, for one of the harder questions I gave a very confused description of a complicated (but efficient!) algorithm. Still kicking myself over that one.

Hugin Panorama Software

So I discovered Hugin today.

In ubuntu, it installs as you would expect, just add it under the Software tab.

In Windows, the installation is a little more involved. Download the usual setup from the main website and extract it into a directory. Run Hugin to start using it... however, we don't yet have all the magic, due to patent restrictions. To get the remaining magic, head to here, and add the extra executables from the bin directory of the second download into the bin directory of the first download (but don't overwrite anything). *Now* when you run hugin.exe the wizard should be effective.

Works best with high-res, in-focus photos, with a decent amount of overlap.

This program is just magical.