BAR-ILAN INSTITUTE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY & ADVANCED MATERIALS | 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

At the heart of Dr. Girshevitz’ laboratory is a particle accelerator that produces a high-energy particle beam (ion beam) using electric fields and shields. The particles penetrate the material being tested or analyzed, and bounce back with information on the characteristics of the sample. The particles carry information about the composition of the material. The findings allow for nanoscale precision analysis without damaging the analyzed materials. Dr. Girshevitz’ laboratory provides services to all of BINA’s researchers and other scientific and industrial laboratories across the nation and worldwide. “This unique position requires a multidisciplinary understanding of engineering, nuclear and solid-state physics, chemistry, material engineering and more,” says Dr. Girshevitz. Only three scientists operate and maintain the pelletron tandem accelerator facility, an instrumental part of the Center for Scientific Instrumentation at BINA. The combined forces of Dr. Olga Girshevitz, Head of the laboratory, engineer Michael Ryazanskiy, and Dr. Vladimir Richter’s 40 years of practical experience make the accelerator lab’s performance the strongest in Israel. When tackling a question such as “why is it that a manufactured component does not function as it should?”, the surface analysis methodology can detect contaminations or unintended changes that resulted from the fabrication process, directing the scientists to a possible problem and its solution. “In many cases, a specific problem can give way to a wider and more acute problem, launching a whole new research project,” says Dr. Girshevitz. “For example, when Prof. Chaim Sukenik of the Chemistry Department, one of the founders of BINA, came to our lab to measure a wafer-thin layer of metal oxide on a polymer, we found out that the ion beam irradiation changed the electrical properties of polymer. What started out as a nonconductive material became partly conductive after being exposed to irradiation. This yielded a very important research project, relevant to the space field, where polymers are being used in satellites as a nonconductive coating for conductive components. In space, plasma exposure and radiation-induced polymer damage could be a reason for mechanical and electrical property changes,” elaborates Dr. Girshevitz. Her research of this real and common phenomenon yielded Dr. Olga Girshevitz , Head of the Surface Analysis Facility at the Bar-Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), conducted two postdoctoral fellowships. The first, at the Weizmann Institute, focused on solid-state electronic properties of semiconductors, and the second, at Bar-Ilan University, concentrated on thin ceramic films. Dr. Girshevitz brings with her the vast multidisciplinary knowledge she obtained through her B.Sc. in physics from the University of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, as well as her B.Sc. in physical chemistry and Ph.D. in surface chemistry, both from Bar-Ilan University. Dr. Girshevitz was awarded the Ministry of Science Eshkol Scholarship and the Shvartz Excellence Scholarship. 19