introduction

My present research interest is on the experimental investigation of "Soft Matter Physics", this focuses on the study of a variety of physical systems whose properties are intermediate between liquid and solid states. All these materials, despite their very different nature, share an important common physical feature: soft matter self-organizes into mesoscopic structures that are much larger than the microscopic scale and yet are much smaller than the macroscopic (overall) scale of the material. At LENS we study structure and dynamics of soft matter by means time-resolved laser spectroscopy, exciting the sample impulsively. It is thus possible to follow the sample response over a very wide time scale, from picosecond to millisecond, and investigate a variety of soft matter properties, including molecular vibrations, structural-rotational relaxation, elastic-acoustic propagation and thermal diffusion.

I am coordinating the "Soft Matter Physics" research line at the European Lab. for Non-Linear Spectroscopy

Our present researches are :

the ultrafast dynamics of the supercooled water by optical Kerr effect (OKE).

the properties of nano-confined liquids both by OKE and transient grating experiments (TG), measuring the acoustic propagation, the flow and thermal diffusion phenomena at the nanoscale.

the phononic properties of nano-structured surfaces by reflecting TG experiments.

the development of THz laser sources and Time Domain Spectroscopy set-ups in this unexplored frequency range.