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Dr Zbig Sobiesierski

Zbig Sobiesierski

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BSc Physics (Hons), MSc Communicating Science, PhD, MInstP, CPhys

Zbig Sobiesierski was born and brought up in Swansea, but left his home town to obtain both his degree and doctorate in physics from the University of Exeter. On returning to Wales, he carried out research in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University leaving, in 1992, to become the first Hitachi Associate Professor in Quantum Electronics at the University of Hokkaido, Sapporo, Japan.

Since returning to the UK, he has taken an increasing interest in adult education and science communication, giving both physics demonstration lectures and workshops on science communication in the UK, Ireland and South Africa. Zbig is a firm believer in taking science to “where the people are”.

Refereed Publications

  1. Sobiesierski, Z. and Phillips, R.T. (1986) ‘A time-resolved study of amorphous phosphorus’, Sol. Stat. Commun. 60, pp. 25-29.
  2. Phillips, R.T., Sobiesierski, Z., Toner, W.T., Barr, J.R.M. and Langley, A.J. (1987) ‘Initial photoluminescence decay rates in amorphous phosphorus’, Sol. Stat. Commun. 63, pp. 481-483.
  3. Sobiesierski, Z. and Phillips, R.T. (1987) ‘Time-resolved photoluminescence in amorphous phosphorus’, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 90, pp. 457-460.
  4. Phillips, R.T. and Sobiesierski, Z. (1987) ‘Recombination in amorphous red phosphorus’, J. Phys. C20, pp. 4259-4269.
  5. Forsyth, N.M., Dharmadasa, I.M., Sobiesierski, Z. and Williams, R.H. (1988) ‘An investigation of metal contacts to II-VI compounds: CdTe and CdS’, Vacuum 38, pp. 369-371.
  6. Sobiesierski, Z., Dharmadasa, I.M. and Williams, R.H. (1988) ‘Correlation of photoluminescence measurements with the composition and electronic properties of chemically etched CdTe surfaces’, Appl. Phys. Lett. 53, pp. 2623-2625.
  7. Williams, R.H., Forsyth, N., Dharmadasa, I.M. and Sobiesierski, Z. (1989) ‘Metal contacts to II-VI semiconductors: CdS and CdTe’, Appl. Surf. Sci. 41/42, pp. 189-194.
  8. Forsyth, N.M., Dharmadasa, I.M., Sobiesierski, Z. and Williams, R.H. (1989) ‘Schottky barriers to CdS and their importance in schottky barrier theories’, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 4, pp. 57-59.
  9. Williams, R.H., Thornton, J.M.C., Sobiesierski, Z. and Wilks, S.P. (1990) ‘ Passivating layers and interface reactions on semiconductors studied by surface science techniques’, Sol. Stat. Elect. 33, pp. 97-106.
  10. Sobiesierski, Z., Forsyth, N.M., Dharmadasa, I.M. and Williams, R.H. (1990) ‘Use of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the deposition of metal overlayers onto the clean cleaved CdS surface’, Surf. Sci. 231, pp. 98-102.
  11. Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I. and Williams, R.H. (1990) ‘Raman scattering from InGaAs grown on GaAs(001) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Mat. Sci. Eng. B5, pp. 265-268.
  12. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A., Westwood, D.I. and Williams, R.H. (1990) ‘Characterisation of GaAs buffer layers 0.1 um thick grown on Si(100)’, Mat. Sci. Eng. B5, pp. 275-278.
  13. Sobiesierski, Z., Dharmadasa, I.M. and Williams, R.H. (1990) ‘Photoluminescence as a probe of semiconductor surfaces: CdTe and CdS’, J. Cryst. Growth 101, pp. 599-602.
  14. Wolverson, D., Sobiesierski, Z. and Phillips. R.T. (1990) ‘The dependence of c.w. photoluminescence on excitation energy in a –P’, J. Phys: Condens. Matt. 2, pp. 6433-6437.
  15. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A., Westwood, D.I. and Williams, R.H. (1990) ‘Variation of strain in single and multilayer InGaAs structures grown on Si(100) and Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Superlatt. and Micostruct. 7, pp. 419-421.
  16. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A., Westwood, D.I. and Williams, R.H. (1990) ‘Photoluminescence measurements for GaAs grown on Si(100) and Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Proc. of 20th Int. Conf. on the Physics of Semiconductors, Thessaloniki (World Scientific) pp. 1081-1084.
  17. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A., Westwood, D.I. and Williams, R.H. (1991) ‘Photoluminescence measurements for GaAs grown on Si(100) and Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Appl. Phys. Lett. 58, pp. 628-630.
  18. Sobiesierski, Z., Clark, S.A., Williams, R.H., Tabata, A., Benyattou, T., Guillot, G., Gendry, M., Hollinger, G. and Viktorovitch, P. (1991) ‘Observation of photoluminescence from InAs surface quantum wells grown on InP(100) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Appl. Phys. Lett. 58, pp. 1863-1865.
  19. Tabata, A., Benyattou, T., Guillot, G., Sobiesierski, Z., Clark, S.A., Williams, R.H., Gendry, M., Hollinger, G. and Viktorovitch, P. (1991) ‘Surface InAs/InP quantum wells: epitaxial growth and characterisation’, Proc. of 3rd Int. Conf. on InP and Related Materials, Cardiff.
  20. Sobiesierski, Z., Clark, S.A., Williams, R.H. (1992) ‘Observation of photoluminescence from InAs surface quantum wells grown on InP(100) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Appl. Surf. Sci. 56-58, pp. 703-707.
  21. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A., Westwood, D.I., Frova, A. and Coluzza, C. (1992) ‘Creation of radiative hydrogen-related states within strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells by hydrogenation’, Sol. Stat. Commun. 81, pp. 125-128.
  22. Sobiesierski, Z., Clark, S.A., Williams, R.H., Tabata, A., Benyattou, T., Guillot, G., Gendry, M., Hollinger, G. and Viktorovitch, P. (1991) ‘Observation of photoluminescence from InAs surface quantum wells grown on InP(100) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Proc. of ESPRIT Conf.
  23. Woolf, D.A., Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I. and Williams, R.H. (1992) ‘The molecular beam epitaxial growth of GaAs/GaAs(111)B: doping and growth temperature studies’, J. Appl. Phys. 71, pp. 4908-4915.
  24. Capizzi, M., Coluzza, C., Emiliani, V., Frankl, P., Frova, A., Sarto, F., Bonapasta, A.A., Sobiesierski, Z. and Sacks, R.N. (1992) ‘Hydrogen activated radiative states in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures and InGaAs/GaAs multiquantum wells’, J. Appl. Phys. 72, pp. 1454-1459.
  25. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A., Frova, A. and Phillips, R.T. (1992) ‘Photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy of H-related defects in strained InGaAs/GaAs(100) quantum wells’, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B10, pp. 1975-1979.
  26. Sobiesierski, Z., Woolf, D.A. and Westwood, D.I. (1992) ‘Incorporation of H into InGaAs/GaAs(100) quantum wells:optical spectroscopy of H-related radiative states’, Superlatt. and Microstruct. 12, pp. 261-265.
  27. Sobiesierski, Z. and Westwood, D.I. (1992) ‘Coupling between near-surface InGaAs/GaAs(100) quantum wells and the sample surface’, Superlatt. and Microstruct. 12, pp. 267-271.
  28. Williams, J.P., Westwood, D.I., Sobiesierski, Z. and Aubrey, J.E. (1992) ‘The molecular beam epitaxial growth of GaAs/GaAs(201); doping and growth temperature studies’, Proc. of 21st Int. Conf. on the Physics of Semiconductors, Beijing (World Scientific).
  29. Quagliano, L.G. and Sobiesierski, Z. (1993) ‘Raman scattering as a probe of the tensile strain distribution in GaAs grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy’, Superlatt. and Microstruct. 13, pp. 105-108.
  30. Woolf, D.A., Williams, J.P., Westwood, D.I., Sobiesierski, Z., Aubrey, J.E. and Williams, R.H. (1993) ‘The homoepitaxial growth of on-axis GaAs(111)A, (111)B and (201) compared with GaAs(100): doping and growth temperature studies’, J. Cryst. Growth 127, pp. 913-917.
  31. Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I., Woolf, D.A., Fukui, T. and Hasegawa, H. (1993) ‘Photoluminescence spectroscopy of near-surface quantum wells: electronic coupling between quantised energy levels and the sample surface’, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B11, pp. 1723-1726.
  32. Sobiesierski, Z. and Clegg, J.B. (1993) ‘Evidence for hydrogen accumulation at strained layer heterojunctions’, Appl. Phys. Lett. 63, pp. 926-928.
  33. Williams, J.P., Westwood, D.I., Sobiesierski, Z. and Aubrey, J.E. (1994) ‘Growth optimisation of n-type GaAs on GaAs(201) substrates’, J. Appl. Phys. 76, pp. 612-614.
  34. Sobiesierski, Z. (1995) ‘Application of photoluminescence spectroscopy to semiconductor surfaces and interfaces’ In McGilp, J.F., Weaire, D. and Patterson, C.H. (eds) Epioptics: linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy of surfaces and interfaces, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, pp. 133-162.
  35. Steimetz, E., Zettler, T., Richter, W., Westwood, D.I., Woolf, D.A. and Sobiesierski, Z. (1996) ‘Optical monitoring of the development of InAs quantum dots on GaAs(001) by reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy’, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B14, pp. 3058-3064.
  36. Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I. and Woolf, D.A. (1996) ‘Reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy study of GaAs overlayer growth on sub-monolayer coverages of Si on the GaAs(001)-c(4×4) surface’, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B14, pp. 3065-3069.
  37. Lees, A.K., Zhang, J., Sobiesierski, Z., Taylor, A.G., Xie, M.H., Joyce, B.A. and Westwood, D.I. (1996) ‘New hydrogen desorption kinetics from vicinal Si(001) surfaces as observed by reflectance anisotropy’, Proc. of 23rd Int. Conf. on the Physics of Semiconductors, Berlin (World Scientific) pp. 955-958.
  38. Steimetz, E., Schienle, F., Zettler, J.T., Richter, W., Westwood, D., Sobiesierski, Z., Matthai, C., Junno, B., Miller, M. and Samuelson, L. (1996) ‘In-situ control of InAs quantum dot evolution in MBE, MOVPE and MOMBE’, Proc. of 23rd Int. Conf. on the Physics of Semiconductors, Berlin (World Scientific) pp. 1297-1300.
  39. Zhang, J., Lees, A.K., Taylor, A.G., Xie, M.H., Joyce, B.A., Sobiesierski, Z. and Westwood, D.I. (1996) ‘New hydrogen desorption kinetics from vicinal Si(001) surfaces observed by reflectance anisotropy’, Proc. Of MBE9, Malibu, J. Cryst. Growth.
  40. Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I., Parbrook, P.J., Ozanyan, K.B., Hopkinson, M. and Whitehouse, C.R. (1997) ‘As/P exchange on InP(001) studied by reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy’, Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, pp. 1423-1425.
  41. Ozanyan, K.B., Parbrook, P.J., Hopkinson, M., Whitehouse, C.R., Sobiesierski, Z. and Westwood, D.I. (1997) ‘In-situ monitoring of the surface reconstructions of InP(001) prepared by molecular beam epitaxy’, J. Appl. Phys. 82, pp. 474-476.
  42. Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I. and Elliott, M. (1997) ‘Reflectance anisotropy spectra from Si δ-doped GaAs(001): correlation of linear electro-optic effect with integrated surface field’, Phys. Rev. B-Condensed Matter 56, pp. 15277-15281.
  43. Sobiesierski, Z. and Westwood, D.I. (1998) ‘Reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy and the growth of low-dimensional materials’, Thin Solid Films 318, pp. 140-147.
  44. Parbrook, P.J., Ozanyan, B.B., Hopkinson, M., Whitehouse, C.R., Sobiesierski, Z. and Westwood, D.I. (1998) ‘Surface structure of InP(001) under dynamic and static conditions of molecular beam epitaxy’, Appl. Surf Sci. 123, pp. 313-318.
  45. Westwood, D.I., Sobiesierski, Z, Steimetz, E., Zettler, J.T. and Richter, W. (1998) ‘On the development of InAs on GaAs(001) as measured by reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy: continuous and islanded films’, Appl. Surf. Sci. 123, pp. 347-351.
  46. Parbrook, P.J., Ozanyan, K.B., Hopkinson, M., Whitehouse, C.R., Sobiesierski, Z. and Westwood, D.I. (1998) ‘Optical monitoring of InP monolayer growth rates’, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, pp. 345-347.
  47. Westwood, D.I., Sobiesierski, Z., Matthai, C.C., Steimetz, E., Zettler, T. and Richter, W. (1998) ‘Processes of quantum dot formation in the InAs on GaAs(001) system: a reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy study’, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B16, pp. 2358-2366.
  48. Sobiesierski, Z., Westwood, D.I. and Matthai, C.C. (1998) ‘Aspects of reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy from semiconductor surfaces’, J. Phys. Condens. Matt. 10, pp. 1-41.
  49. Sobiesierski, Z. (1998) ‘Simulations for solid state physics’, Computers in Physics Education 16, pp. 8-12.
  50. Quagliano, L.G., Sobiesierski, Z., Orani, D. and Ricci, A. (1999) ‘Phonon study of temperature evolution of strain in GaAs/Si(001) and GaAs/Si(111) heterostructures’, Physica B267, pp. 775-778.
  51. Sobiesierski, Z. (1999) ‘Selling Science ?’, Wavelength 23, 14-15.
  52. Westwood, D.I., Sobiesierski, Z. and Matthai, C.C. (1999) ‘The dynamics of quantum dot formation in the InAs on GaAs(001) system: growth rate effects’, Appl. Surf. Sci. 145, pp. 484-490.
  53. Sobiesierski, Z. (2001) ‘Communicating physics on tour’, Physics Education 36, pp. 23-29.
  54. Holliman, R., Alderson, K., Barker, S., Forrester, J., and Sobiesierski, Z.  (2001) ‘Developing Computer Mediated Discussions in Distance-Learning Education: Facilitating Online Conferences’, Proc.of 3rd Int. Conf. On Science education Research in the Knowledge Based Society (Thessaloniki), vol. 1, pp. 441-443.

Professional expertise

Awards

Institute of Physics prize for Public Awareness of Physics, 2001.

Grants

Science Communication

Physics demonstration lectures and workshops, along with academic presentations on science communication. Topics have included: Seeing is believing?

Zbig Sobiesierski demonstrates the science of slime at the Bath & West Show, 1997

Zbig Sobiesierski demonstrates the science of slime at the Bath & West Show, 1997

Beertricks Potting - science cabaret in pubs around the Cardiff area.

Beertricks Potting – science cabaret in pubs around the Cardiff area.

Check Out Science - Science cabaret in pubs around the Cardiff area.

Check Out Science

Institute of Physics Schools and Colleges' Lecture Tour, 1999-2000 (49 presentations in 38 venues across the UK).

Institute of Physics Schools and Colleges’ Lecture Tour, 1999-2000 (49 presentations in 38 venues across the UK).

Tyndall Lectures on behalf of the Institute of Physics in Ireland, 2001

Tyndall Lectures on behalf of the Institute of Physics in Ireland, 2001

Water rocket workshop, Sasol SciFest 2001

Water rocket workshop, Sasol SciFest 2001

Water rocket workshop, Sasol SciFest 2001

Water rocket workshop, Sasol SciFest 2001

Presentation on "Physics and performance" from lecture demonstrations to pub science, Sasol Scifest 2006.

Presentation on “Physics and performance” from lecture demonstrations to pub science, Sasol Scifest 2006.

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