In my lab I am taking microscopic slides and turning them into thin films of silver (1 to 100 nm thick) using a evaporator to evenly distribute the silver onto the surface of the films. Then I will be measuring them with an ellipsometer to determine there actually thickness in nm.
This first week I spent cleaning glassware, including the microscopic slides. I washed them in soap and pure water (nothing but H2O), boiled them, cooked them in an oven at 500°C for four hours, then put them in a even mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid, boiled them again, and finally put them in a plasma cleaner to make sure that they were 100% clean.
Next week I will be evaporating the silver onto the glass slides and using the ellipsometer to measure the thickness of the silver films.
It has been an awesome first week and I’m learning so much. I’m having an absolute blast! 
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