Somewhat as a reaction to experiencing the mechanical fragility of the indigo thin films fabricated by ultrasonic spraying, I gathered together some vacuum equipment from around the lab to kludge together a rudimentary thermal evaporator. My hope was that an evaporation-deposited thin film of indigo might be more durable…

The setup looks neat (and got a lot of encouraging comments on Instagram for a potential afterlife as a sculpture) but the indigo from the crucible really went everywhere in the chamber when heated–it made a cloud not a beam–so this process as initially attempted wastes a lot of indigo to make one thin film sample and also probably does some bad things to the vacuum pumps. Here are the before and after photos of the aluminum substrate:

I haven’t actually had a chance yet to test this evaporated film in a memristor junction–I made it just before heading off to Japan for a research trip and then when I got back it was the start of the new academic year. But I did have a quick look under the microscope (700x):

… and was surprised to see various chunks/grains on the surface, but all that to be investigated eventually. I like how this image evokes what we have come to imagine (through sci-fi shows/movies) as a view of a planet from orbit.