MARCH 1998 REPORT FOR

W. CHARLES SYMONS, III

The main priorities for the month of May were the laser dermatome project and preparation for the 1998 Pittsburgh Conference. For the laser dermatome project, two separate tests were performed. During the first test, the dermatome did not perform well due to the fact that it was utilized on a soft surface. As it turns out, the weight of the dermatome itself causes it to sink into soft surfaces which then changes the incident angle of the laser cutting beam. In order to alleviate this problem, a hardware fix is being implemented by Dr. David Kirn and will be tested at a later date along with an optical feedback circuit.

Once the dermatome project tests were completed, the majority of February was spent preparing for the Pittcon '98 talk entitled NEAR-FIELD SCANNING OPTICAL MICROSCOPIC IMAGING FROM X-BAND TO NEAR-IR. For this preparation, the physical NSOM instrument was set up utilizing the Melles Griot stage received earlier as depicted in Figures 1 and 2 below. The new A-to-D card, however, did not arrive until 5 days before Pittcon making it difficult to collect much data. Although, with some quick coding, several noisy and difficult to interpret test images were collected. Currently, work is underway to collect better images including images of specific test samples. Furthermore, work is also currently underway to improve both the Moment Method and Finite-Difference Time Domain NSOM simulation codes.

Figure 1: Physical NSOM Setup.

Figure 2: Closeup View of NSOM Probe.