Goals

The instrument is the experiment here. A working STM means solving vibration isolation, a tip sharp enough to matter, a coarse approach that doesn’t crash into the sample, and the current-to-voltage electronics that make picoamps legible.

Success is one honest image of a graphite surface with the atomic lattice visible — not a purchased kit, and not a picture I can’t explain.

I want to fabricate a dye-sensitized solar cell where I’ve made or prepared every functional layer myself — the TiO₂ paste, the sensitizing dye, the electrolyte, the counter-electrode — and then actually characterize it honestly: J–V curves, efficiency, degradation over weeks.

The point isn’t the efficiency number. It’s understanding, at the level of my own hands, why each interface matters.