Helium

Despite having 3 weeks off, I had no trouble getting back into research yesterday. My new schedule is MWF 9-12, but I'll invariably spend more than 9 hours a week there. Jake Edmand is also going to be working this quarter, and we share a physics lab and lecture, so it should be interesting.
After quickly updating each other on what we were doing, Cheryl Johnson had to go to class, so I was left to finish what she started. Dr. McWilliams guided me through bringing the chamber back to atmospheric pressure, and installing plates on the chamber walls. The entire process was very hands on. The reason for having to replace some of the plates on the wall was because there was a leak. A Helium detector is attached to the chamber, and helium is released around the outside of potential leaks in the chamber. By process of elimination, one can find the leaks, and replace the faulty plates.The rest of the day was spent fixing up my Langmuir probe, which to my surprise, had a short.
The next week will probably be setting up for the probe controller "GT6K" and final installation of the probe itself into the chamber.