Staff profile

Short Biography

Iddo Amit (IA) graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemistry, with emphasis on physical and theoretical chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2003, an M.Sc. in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnologies in 2010 and a Ph.D. in Physical Electronics in 2014, both from Tel Aviv University. In 2015, IA joined the University of Exeter as an Associate Research Fellow, where he later won the prestigious European Commission's Marie Curie Fellowship (2016-2017). Following a short tenure as a Lecturer in Physics in Exeter, IA joined the Department of Engineering in Durham University, in July 2018.

Research Summary

The world of electronic materials is evolving rapidly. While it’s unlikely that we’ll see silicon and GaAs losing their prominence in the device industry, added functionality offered by newly emerging low-dimensional materials, such as layered semiconductors, nanowires and quantum dots, offer the possibility to expand the existing tool kit of device engineers with novel sensors, detectors and printable electronics. But new possibilities also carry new challenges with them. My primary research goal is to explore the field of semiconductor interface phenomena, and elucidate the physics that govern the nanoscale through functional microscopy. This field carries immense implications to device performance, thermal management and sensing abilities, which, in turn, affect reliability and sensitivity of all modern and future electronics.

My research aims to answer some of the most important open research questions in the field of nanoscale and low dimensional semiconductor devices, such as:

• How do current and thermal-stressing affect nano-scale systems, in particular by considering the effects on electromigration of grain boundaries, formation of defect-associated traps and contact degradation?
• What are the origins of the slow carrier dynamics in low dimensional systems, and how can it be controlled and manipulated for highly-functional devices?
• What are the main characterisation tools that will be required for the future electronics industry? What are the future requirements for development and quality assurance, and how can they be addressed?

• Low Dimensional Semiconductors
• Semiconductor Device: Physics, Design and Characterisation
• Thermally Activated Processes: Generation-Recombination and Thermionic Emission
• Interfaces: Charge Trapping and Energy Barriers
• Sensors
• Noise
• Scanning Probe Microscopy and Spectroscopy
• Transient Current Spectroscopy
• Finite-Element Method
• Dielectric response of materials

Journal Article

• Tzaguy, A., Karadan, P., Killi, K., Hazut, O., Amit, I., Rosenwaks, Y., & Yerushalmi, R. (2020). Boron Monolayer Doping: Role of Oxide Capping Layer, Molecular Fragmentation, and Doping Uniformity at the Nanoscale. Advanced Materials Interfaces, 7(5), Article 1902198. https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201902198
• Dagan, R., Vaknin, Y., Weisman, D., Amit, I., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2019). Accurate Method To Determine the Mobility of Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides with Incomplete Gate Screening. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 11(47), 44406-44412. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b12611
• Townsend, N. J., Amit, I., Panchal, V., Kazakova, O., Craciun, M. F., & Russo, S. (2019). Energy dispersive spectroscopic measurement of charge traps in MoTe_2. Physical review B, 100(16), Article 165310. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.165310
• Peimyoo, N., Barnes, M., Mehew, J., De Sanctis, A., Amit, I., Escolar, J., …Withers, F. (2019). Laser-writable high-k dielectric for van der Waals nanoelectronics. Science Advances, 5(1), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau0906
• De Sanctis, A., Amit, I., Hepplestone, S. P., Craciun, M. F., & Russo, S. (2018). Strain-engineered inverse charge-funnelling in layered semiconductors. Nature Communications, 9, Article 1652. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04099-7
• Dimov, D., Amit, I., Gorrie, O., Barnes, M. D., Townsend, N. J., Neves, A. I., …Craciun, M. F. (2018). Ultrahigh Performance Nanoengineered Graphene-Concrete Composites for Multifunctional Applications. Advanced Functional Materials, 28(23), Article 1705183. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201705183
• Townsend, N. J., Amit, I., Craciun, M. F., & Russo, S. (2018). Sub 20 meV Schottky barriers in metal/MoTe2 junctions. 2D Materials, 5(2), Article 025023. https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/aab56a
• Reale, F., Palczynski, P., Amit, I., Jones, G. F., Mehew, J. D., Bacon, A., …others. (2017). High-Mobility and High-Optical Quality Atomically Thin WS 2. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 14911. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14928-2
• Amit, I., Octon, T. J., Townsend, N. J., Reale, F., Wright, C. D., Mattevi, C., …Russo, S. (2017). Role of charge traps in the performance of atomically thin transistors. Advanced Materials, 29(19), Article 1605598. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201605598
• De Sanctis, A., Barnes, M. D., Amit, I., Craciun, M. F., & Russo, S. (2017). Functionalised hexagonal-domain graphene for position-sensitive photodetectors. Nanotechnology, 28(12), Article 124004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/aa5ec0
• Amit, I., Jeon, N., Lauhon, L. J., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2016). Impact of Dopant Compensation on Graded p-n Junctions in Si Nanowires. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 8(1), 128-134. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b07746
• Shamir, A., Amit, I., Englander, D., Horvitz, D., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2015). Potential barrier height at the grain boundaries of a poly-silicon nanowire. Nanotechnology, 26(35), Article 355201. https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/26/35/355201
• Segev, G., Amit, I., Godkin, A., Henning, A., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2015). Multiple state electrostatically formed nanowire transistors. IEEE Electron Device Letters, 36(7), 651-653
• Henning, A., Swaminathan, N., Godkin, A., Shalev, G., Amit, I., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2015). Tunable diameter electrostatically formed nanowire for high sensitivity gas sensing. Nano Research, 8(7), 2206-2215
• Amit, I., Englander, D., Horvitz, D., Sasson, Y., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2014). Density and Energy Distribution of Interface States in the Grain Boundaries of Polysilicon Nanowire. Nano Letters, 14(11), 6190-6194. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl5024468
• Hazut, O., Huang, B., Pantzer, A., Amit, I., Rosenwaks, Y., Kohn, A., …Yerushalmi, R. (2014). Parallel p-n Junctions across Nanowires by One-Step Ex Situ Doping. ACS Nano, 8(8), 8357-8362
• Shalev, G., Landman, G., Amit, I., Rosenwaks, Y., & Levy, I. (2013). Specific and label-free femtomolar biomarker detection with an electrostatically formed nanowire biosensor. NPG Asia Materials, 5(3),
• Yoon, K., Hyun, J. K., Connell, J. G., Amit, I., Rosenwaks, Y., & Lauhon, L. J. (2013). Barrier Height Measurement of Metal Contacts to Si Nanowires Using Internal Photoemission of Hot Carriers. Nano Letters, 13(12), 6183-6188
• Amit, I., Givan, U., Connell, J. G., Paul, D. F., Hammond, J. S., Lauhon, L. J., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2013). Spatially resolved correlation of active and total doping concentrations in VLS grown nanowires. Nano Letters, 13(6), 2598-2604
• Hazut, O., Agarwala, A., Amit, I., Subramani, T., Zaidiner, S., Rosenwaks, Y., & Yerushalmi, R. (2012). Contact Doping of Silicon Wafers and Nanostructures with Phosphine Oxide Monolayers. ACS Nano, 6(11), 10311-10318
• Shaya, O., Amit, I., Einati, H., Burstein, L., Shacham-Diamand, Y., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2012). Molecular gating of transistors by amine-terminated layers. Applied Surface Science, 258(8), 4069-4072
• Shaya, O., Amit, I., & Rosenwaks, Y. (2010). The Effect of Nonideal Polar Monolayers on Molecular Gated Transistors