Born in Città di Castello (PG, Italy) on 10 October 1965, lives in Ferrara.
1990. Degree in Physics: his thesis work lasted approximately one year; graduated in Physics with full marks (summa cum laude) at the University of Perugia.
1990-94. He attended the Ph.D. studies (Dottorato di ricerca in Fisica) at the University of Ferrara; the research activity ended up with a thesis entitled "Theory of Brillouin scattering from acoustic phonons on Si(001) with periodic corrugation" in 1994.
1993-94. Fellowship (INFM) on the topic "Scattering Brillouin from corrugated surfaces", with research activity carried out at the Research Unit of Ferrara.
1994-97. Fellowship (company Alenia) for activity of formation and research carried out at the Institute of Acoustics "O. M. Corbino" of CNR, Rome.
1 July 1997. He started to work as a Researcher at the University of Ferrara, Faculty of Sciences, scientific field B03X (now FIS/03).
1 November 2014. He became Associate Professor at the University of Ferrara.
Membership to the National Institute for Physics of Matter (INFM) in different roles: as associate researcher (1990-93), as collaborator (1994-97) and again as associate researcher (from 1997 to 2005). Then, he become associate of the Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia (CNISM, 2005-on).
Research activity.
The scientific interests mainly concern the study of the collective excitations in solids (acoustic phonons and magnons) and of their interaction with visible light. Brillouin Scattering from phonons: experimental elastic and photoelastic characterization of materials (ZnO, GaAs) has been performed during the undergraduate studies; during the PhD studies he developed a theory of phonon propagation in periodically corrugated surfaces and Brillouin cross section. On this subject he presented the invited communication "Brillouin Scattering from corrugated surfaces" at the the European Workshop (Sponsored by the European Commission) on "Surface Brillouin Scattering, phonons, magnons and relaxation phenomena" University of Oxford, GB, 17-19 April 1997. The theoretical interpretation of Brillouin spectra lead to the determination of the elastic and elasto-optic properties of several different single films (polystirene, InSb, Ge, InAs) and multilayers (Si/SiO2/Si). Elastic properties of carbon. He contributed to the study of the elastic properties of a C60 film (FCC crystal structure) in the limit of long wavelength, determining, for the first time, the complete set of the elastic constants of this material by fitting the calculated velocities of the surface mode with the experimental results.
Surface acoustic wave waveguides. He studied the acoustic wave propagation in laterally confined surface waveguides, and the interaction between such confined elastic waves and light which propagates coaxially. The objective of this study was the realization of devices for integrated optics, such as tunable filters, with interesting applications in the field of the telecommunication. A new confinement technique, based on the deposition of AlN, proved to be effective for the realization of such waveguides. Spin waves in single films and multilayers. He studied the spin wave propagation in layered samples with three different approaches: (1) Ultrathin film approximation: the dependency of the dynamic magnetization on the perpendicular coordinate is neglected, and the frequency of surface waves found analitically or with a simple numeric procedure. (2) Partial waves method: the dependency of the dynamic magnetization on the perpendicular coordinate is taken fully into account, through an expansion in partial waves; this method is applicable to films of whichever thickness. (3) Green Functions method: the response of the magnetic system to an impulsive excitation is studied with the Green functions, in order to gain the properties of its elementary magnetic excitations. Spin modes of confined particles. He developed a theory of spin modes in confined particles (dynamical matrix method), based on the partition of the magnetic dot in small cells (as in micromagnetic calculations) and the solution of the system of coupled dynamic equations. The linearized system is then solved numerically, allowing the determination of frequency and profile of each eigenmode of the particle. This method, applicable to magnetic particles of any shape, has be generalized to take into account interparticle coupling. An important recognition of the work done in this field has been recently obtained with the invitation to present the paper by Giovannini et al. ''Magnetic normal modes of nanoparticles: application to ferromagnetic cylindrical dots'' to the 49th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (2004 MMM, Jacksonville, Florida, 7-11 November 2004).
In recent years, thanks to European funding, he dedicated to the study of collective excitations in one and two dimensional magnonic crystals. He has been scientific manager of local research fund of the University of Ferrara during the years from 2001 to 2005 and is presently local manager of a national research fund PRIN 2007. He is scientific coordinator of European projects of the Seventh Framework Programme: Project DYNAMAG (from 2009 to 2012) and MAGNONICS (from 2011 to 2012).
1990. Degree in Physics: his thesis work lasted approximately one year; graduated in Physics with full marks (summa cum laude) at the University of Perugia.
1990-94. He attended the Ph.D. studies (Dottorato di ricerca in Fisica) at the University of Ferrara; the research activity ended up with a thesis entitled "Theory of Brillouin scattering from acoustic phonons on Si(001) with periodic corrugation" in 1994.
1993-94. Fellowship (INFM) on the topic "Scattering Brillouin from corrugated surfaces", with research activity carried out at the Research Unit of Ferrara.
1994-97. Fellowship (company Alenia) for activity of formation and research carried out at the Institute of Acoustics "O. M. Corbino" of CNR, Rome.
1 July 1997. He started to work as a Researcher at the University of Ferrara, Faculty of Sciences, scientific field B03X (now FIS/03).
1 November 2014. He became Associate Professor at the University of Ferrara.
Membership to the National Institute for Physics of Matter (INFM) in different roles: as associate researcher (1990-93), as collaborator (1994-97) and again as associate researcher (from 1997 to 2005). Then, he become associate of the Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia (CNISM, 2005-on).
Research activity.
The scientific interests mainly concern the study of the collective excitations in solids (acoustic phonons and magnons) and of their interaction with visible light. Brillouin Scattering from phonons: experimental elastic and photoelastic characterization of materials (ZnO, GaAs) has been performed during the undergraduate studies; during the PhD studies he developed a theory of phonon propagation in periodically corrugated surfaces and Brillouin cross section. On this subject he presented the invited communication "Brillouin Scattering from corrugated surfaces" at the the European Workshop (Sponsored by the European Commission) on "Surface Brillouin Scattering, phonons, magnons and relaxation phenomena" University of Oxford, GB, 17-19 April 1997. The theoretical interpretation of Brillouin spectra lead to the determination of the elastic and elasto-optic properties of several different single films (polystirene, InSb, Ge, InAs) and multilayers (Si/SiO2/Si). Elastic properties of carbon. He contributed to the study of the elastic properties of a C60 film (FCC crystal structure) in the limit of long wavelength, determining, for the first time, the complete set of the elastic constants of this material by fitting the calculated velocities of the surface mode with the experimental results.
Surface acoustic wave waveguides. He studied the acoustic wave propagation in laterally confined surface waveguides, and the interaction between such confined elastic waves and light which propagates coaxially. The objective of this study was the realization of devices for integrated optics, such as tunable filters, with interesting applications in the field of the telecommunication. A new confinement technique, based on the deposition of AlN, proved to be effective for the realization of such waveguides. Spin waves in single films and multilayers. He studied the spin wave propagation in layered samples with three different approaches: (1) Ultrathin film approximation: the dependency of the dynamic magnetization on the perpendicular coordinate is neglected, and the frequency of surface waves found analitically or with a simple numeric procedure. (2) Partial waves method: the dependency of the dynamic magnetization on the perpendicular coordinate is taken fully into account, through an expansion in partial waves; this method is applicable to films of whichever thickness. (3) Green Functions method: the response of the magnetic system to an impulsive excitation is studied with the Green functions, in order to gain the properties of its elementary magnetic excitations. Spin modes of confined particles. He developed a theory of spin modes in confined particles (dynamical matrix method), based on the partition of the magnetic dot in small cells (as in micromagnetic calculations) and the solution of the system of coupled dynamic equations. The linearized system is then solved numerically, allowing the determination of frequency and profile of each eigenmode of the particle. This method, applicable to magnetic particles of any shape, has be generalized to take into account interparticle coupling. An important recognition of the work done in this field has been recently obtained with the invitation to present the paper by Giovannini et al. ''Magnetic normal modes of nanoparticles: application to ferromagnetic cylindrical dots'' to the 49th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (2004 MMM, Jacksonville, Florida, 7-11 November 2004).
In recent years, thanks to European funding, he dedicated to the study of collective excitations in one and two dimensional magnonic crystals. He has been scientific manager of local research fund of the University of Ferrara during the years from 2001 to 2005 and is presently local manager of a national research fund PRIN 2007. He is scientific coordinator of European projects of the Seventh Framework Programme: Project DYNAMAG (from 2009 to 2012) and MAGNONICS (from 2011 to 2012).
