Electro-mechanical properties of nanostructures (theory)
Research
Prof. Ron Lifshitz is a theoretical physicist working on a range of topics in two separate fields: Quasicrystals and Nanomechanics. His work on quasicrystals in the last decade is mainly concerned with unlocking the secret to their thermodynamic stability -- especially in the context of soft condensed matter -- and using it to control their self-assembly via pair-potential design.
In addition, he studies the fundamentals of aperiodic long-range order and its effect on physical properties, currently focusing on the puzzling nature of single-electron quantum wave functions in quasicrystals. In the field of nanomechanics Prof. Lifshitz's studies range from the mesoscopic physics of phonons in confined geometries and their interaction with electrons, the classical dynamics of coupled nonlinear nanomechanical resonators and oscillators, and the quantum-mechanical behavior of human-made nanoscale devices, with an emphasis on nonlinear quantum dynamics.
