Projects
Numerical simulation of adsorption on graphite
Developing a model of gas adsorption requires intensive computer power to numerically simulate the interactions between lots of molecules all at once. We are computing the spectra expected due to dynamic dipole coupling in binary mixture monolayers. Molecules of type A and B in specified ratios are placed randomly on a fixed triangular lattice, or allowed to redistribute to favor like or unlike nearest neighbors. Programs written in C and Mathematica have been developed and deployed on the computers in the lab and the departments cluster supercomputer. Future projects include extending the simulations to cover more layers, a wider variety of assets (including spin), and a new method of reaching equilibrium configurations. We believe that the simulation of the gas adsorption can help us to understand the results we have obtained from the experiment, as well as helping to develop useful techniques for data analysis.
Analysis of past data
The experiment generates a lot of data, most of which needs processing by hand to obtain useful information from it. This is a continual process as the machine is generating more data almost every day. The data is analysed using a variety of programs, and the results are collected into excel files for further processing. All the files follow a strict layout so that they can be searched easily, and there is room for the development of computer programs to extract data automatically.