Profile

About Me…

I always thought of myself as different… the odd one out. I found that I enjoyed learning, especially maths and science. When it came to sixth-form/college, I was the only girl that was interested in studying physics in my year, and so I had to go to a separate boys college to study this subject. It was from this point onward that I was in the minority being a female. But this did not bother me in the slightest! In fact, I was finally surrounded by people who had similar interests to me and I felt a connection with.

After I studied physics at university I travelled around the world for a year. It is probably because of my curious nature that I am a scientist/engineer which also led to my desire to experience every corner of the world. Whenever I have the chance I try to visit somewhere new, to experience a different culture, meet new people, try different foods, and open my eyes to how different we all are.

My work…

In my position as a researcher, it is my job to to create something that no-one else has made before.

The first stage is THE IDEA!

This needs a good understanding of what you are trying to do and how it will work.

Second stage: Growing the material

Once we have the design in place, it is a matter of growing the material from single atoms to create layers.  This is done using a huge machine shown above with a vacuum similar to that of outer space! This equipment is not cheap either, it costs around £2 million!

Here are some images of nanowires I have grown (not using the MBE). The first image looks like a carpet and when you zoom in, then you can see each one of the nanowires.

Compare this to the size of your hair – see the image below. The image also shows the thickness of spider silk (image from http://www.optics.rochester.edu/workgroups/cml/opt307/spr07/luke/).

Third stage: Finishing touches

This structure won’t work as a device until we can connect it to a power source. This requires putting a metal on the surface like gold, as it is a very good conductor. The image below shows an example of two completed devices with a gold contact.

Forth stage: Testing

This is the exciting stage that I enjoy most… where I finally get to see whether the idea is a success! I connect my device to equipment that allows me to measure the output. I then shine a light as bright as the sun onto my device to see how much energy I can generate.

Final Stage:

If it was successful … then I need to tell everyone! This is done in a number of ways, firstly we write a report that gets published in a journal so that other scientists/engineers know what we have done. Another way of telling people is at conferences, where a lot of scientists gather  (who work on similar things to me), and you give a talk about your work. This is a great opportunity to meet people and often a lot of your ideas come from these conferences.

Unfortunately it is often that your idea is not successful. This is where the problem solving comes in. I think this is one of the most important parts of being a scientist.