Day 3 - 5/20

Got in around 10 today. Had a meeting with John till 11 about the robot, and how to make it work. Turns out, you have to put it in "Teach" to upload files, and have to use Comm4 to be able to upload it. You also can change which program number is which, to be able to just selectively run them. 

Some action items out of the meeting were: 

• Figure out what kind of weight will create a scribe by stacking different weights perhaps (try different standardized weights around the office
• Try using a record stylus to scribe as there is a diamond on it.
• Get old perovskites to scribe (Sandy has some)
• Design a holder for the scribing (there will be different holders for different angles)
• Try out pressing a razor vs diamond scribing primarily (plunge vs scratch)
• Use the microscope to look at the scribe after it is done
• At the end have Felix show the PL mapping changes
• Ask Sandy about if the perovskite characterization is hard/tough/brittle/elastic

After the meeting, the entire time has just been designing a bracket to hold the razor, and a bracket for the diamond. 

I've also been looking more at the specific scribes and how they work. 

Maybe try: A diamond burin geometry (negative rake, acute included angle) drawn at controlled depth, possibly with ultrasonic axial vibration

Scribing possibilities:

1. Glass scribing for display manufacturing — Tungsten-carbide or PCD wheels with precisely controlled penetration angles cleanly fracture glass along a controlled median crack. The geometry principles transfer directly.

2. Diamond stylus cleaving of semiconductor wafers — A diamond scribe creates a controlled crack-initiation line; minimal debris because most "removal" is elastic crack propagation, not material chipping.

3. Microtomy / Ultramicrotomy — Diamond knives (with included angles around 35–45°) shear biological and polymer specimens producing nanometer-thick slices with virtually no debris. The shearing geometry is highly relevant.

4. Wood engraving / "Burin" engraving on copper plates — A V-shaped graver lifts a clean curl of metal rather than scratching it; the tool geometry (rake/clearance angle) is the entire key.

5. Single-point diamond turning (SPDT) — Used to cut optical surfaces with sub-nanometer roughness; relies entirely on staying within the ductile regime via tip radius and feed control.

6. Cryogenic machining — Liquid nitrogen embrittles polymers and adhesives so they fracture cleanly rather than smearing. Directly relevant if your coating is polymeric.

7. Dry-ice (CO₂) blasting — As you mentioned. Sublimating particles deliver kinetic energy without leaving residue; aggressive enough to delaminate coatings, gentle enough (with careful pressure) to spare hard substrates.

8. Ice-blasting and water-ice micro-abrasion — Used for cleaning delicate surfaces in semiconductor and aerospace cleaning applications.

9. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) scratch lithography / nanoshaving — A sharp probe at controlled normal load removes monolayers and thin films cleanly without substrate damage. Demonstrates the principle at extreme miniaturization.

10. Focused Ion Beam (FIB) milling, especially with Xe⁺ plasma sources — Sputtering removes material atom-by-atom; nearly debris-free, but does involve some local heating (less than lasers).

11. Electrochemical jet machining / selective etching with masks — Chemistry rather than mechanics removes the coating; zero mechanical heat. If your coating is chemically distinguishable from glass, a selective etchant + photolithography mask is the classical choice.

12. Nature: Mantis shrimp dactyl club / parrotfish teeth scraping coral biofilm — Biological scraping mechanisms that selectively remove a soft layer from a hard substrate use compliant, multi-edged geometries that are studied in biomimetics literature (search: Wegst, Meyers, et al.).

13. Nature: Limpet radula / chiton teeth — Iron-mineralized tooth structures scrape algae from rock substrates with minimal substrate damage; extensively studied (Barber et al., 2015, Interface Focus) for tool-geometry inspiration.

14. Ultrasonic machining (USM) and rotary ultrasonic machining (RUM) — Tool oscillates at 20–40 kHz, driving abrasive into surface in tiny percussive impacts. Heat generation is minimal because contact time per cycle is microseconds.

Next step: Design a bracket for the razor plunge method.