Prof. Dr. Yeshayahu Lifshitz

Israel Institute of Technology
Nanostructuring of materials

External Senior Fellow
June 2015 – September 2015

Last Update: 31.08.2016

Curriculum Vitae

Prof. Lifshitz (B.Sc. Hebrew University, M.Sc. Tel-Aviv University, Ph.D. Weizmann Institute, all in Physics) worked at Soreq NRC, Israel, between 1971-2004 (before joining the Technion). Between 1988-1989 he was a visiting professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Houston where he originated the “subplantation model” describing the growth of films from energetic species (such species are the basis of modern film deposition techniques). Between 1989-2001 he was the founding head of the space technology center at Soreq which is a national center of knowledge supporting the Israeli Space Industry in all aspects related to the compatibility of materials, electronic devices and systems to the space environments. Since 1999 he is an adjunct professor at City University Hong Kong and a frequent visiting professor there. Between 2001 and 2003 he was a chair professor of materials science at the department of physics and materials science of City University Hong Kong (eminent professors program). He joined the Technion as a full professor (Materials Science & Engineering Department) on November 2004 (chair professor since 2007). In April 2014 he was appointed a chair professor for 3 years at Soochow University, Suzhou, China where he already worked on April-June 2014. Professor Lifshitz published ~120 journal papers and has ~8000 citations with h=40. He was included in the list of the top 100 materials scientists of the past decade (2000-2010) made by Thomson Reuters (ISI). His current research interests cover nanostructuring of carbon and semiconducting materials.

Selected Publications

R.Q. Zhang, Y. Lifshitz, S.T. Lee, “Oxide assisted growth of silicon nanowires”, Advanced Materials 15(7-8), 635, 2003.
Y. Lifshitz, Th. Köhler, Th. Frauenheim, I. Guzmann, A. Hoffman, R.Q. Zhang, X.T. Zhou, S.T. Lee, “The mechanism of diamond nucleation from energetic species”, Science, 297, 1531, 2002.
S. Uhlmann, Th. Frauenheim, Y. Lifshitz, “Molecular Dynamics Study of the Fundamental Processes Involved in Subplantation of Diamondlike Carbon”, Phys. Rev. Lett, 81(3), 641, 1998.
Y. Lifshitz, G.D. Lempert, E. Grossman, “Substantiation of Subplantation Model for Diamondlike Film Growth from by Atomic Force Microscopy”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 72 (17), 2753, 1994.
Y. Lifshitz, S.R. Kasi and J.W. Rabalais, “Subplantation Model for Film Growth From Hyperthermal Species: Application to Diamond”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 62, 1290, 1989.

FRIAS Project

Horizontally grown ZnO NWs and their application for fabrication of sensor arrays

Semiconducting nanowires (NWs) in general and ZnO NWs in particular are considered to be the building blocks of future devices and initiate large scientific and technological research efforts. NWs are typically grown via the assistance of a pattern of a catalyst which leads to their vertical growth. Unfortunately it is still difficult to construct devices from vertical NWs, which nowadays hinders the advance of the field. This research proposal focuses on the guided horizontal growth of ZnO NWs, enabling much better routes for device fabrication (for both fundamental and applied studies). The advantages of vertical NWs will be demonstrated by their application as gas sensors.

The proposed research includes several steps: (1) Fabrication of catalyst patterned nanogrooved Sapphire surfaces, (2) Guided horizontal growth of ZnO NWs on the patterned surfaces applying different growth conditions (different Zn sources, different gas environments during growth), (3) Fabrication of resistors/FETs for further characterization of the electrical properties of these devices and their sensing characteristics for different gases.

Each step will be followed by appropriate characterizations: (1) structural characterizations (HRSEM, HRTEM, AFM) of the patterned surfaces and the NWs, (2) electrical measurements of the resistors/FETs made from NWs grown under different conditions, (3) measurement of the gas sensing properties of the NWs based resistors/FETs.

The proposal is based on the ongoing collaboration between Y. Lifshitz and M. Zacharias from FRIAS and the University of Freiburg. Additional FRIAS (Prof. Urban, Dr. Lienkamp) and IMTEK (Prof. Wöllenstein) researchers will also take part in the research.