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RESEARCH

SNOM

• Near-field optical microscopy with polarization modulation contrast (PM-SNOM) for the investigation of optically anisotropic samples. Part of this research is related to InGaN samples and it is carried out in collaboration with Prof. R. Micheletto of Yokohama City University and Prof. Y. Kawakami in Kyoto University. It was developed within the Italy-Japan bilateral project “Near-field polarization contrast for nano-optics applications".
• Near-field polarization nanoscopy of plasmon nanostructures. This research is carried out within the PRIN project "Plasmonics in metallic self-organized nanoparticles" (2010-2012).
• Electrically-Excited Surface Plasmon Nanosources Using Carbon Nanotube Light Emission. This research is carried out within the NanoSci-E+ European Project E²-Plas (2009-2012).
• Near-field optical microscopy with electro-optic contrast (EM-SNOM) for the investigation of ferroelectric samples. The EM-SNOM prototype was developed within an EC project MarieCurie IIF.
• Near-field optical lithography on azo-based polymers (collaboration with Giancarlo Galli group, Department of Chemistry & Industrial Chemistry) within the Integrated Project of the Regione Toscana POR Ob. 3, Misura D4 "Proprietà strutturali e dinamiche delle diverse scale spazio-temporali in materiali nanocompositi e nanostrutturati per la nanoscrittura ottica".
• Femtosecond nano-optics. We collaborate with colleagues at the Politecnico di Milano, CRS-ULTRAS, on new concepts and development of near-field optical microscopy with femtosecond laser pulses (fs-SNOM). The aim is to perform non-linear spectroscopy with extreme space and time resolution.
• In collaboration with P.G. Gucciardi and S. Patanè, we have participated to the INFN-GINT project with high resolution optical characterization and spectroscopy.
  

AFM

• Atomic force microscopy in various operation modes such as dynamic-AFM, and piezo-AFM.
• We collaborate with Roberto Solaro group, Department of Chemistry & Industrial Chemistry, who uses a Veeco commercial AFM for the investigation of mechanical properties at the nanoscale such as friction, wear, adhesion and (nano)indentation tests as well as surface physics/chemistry of particular interest in polymers.

LASER APPLICATIONS

• Nanodeposition by a laser cooled atom beam is described by Francesco Fuso.
• Maria Allegrini and Andrea Fioretti have participated to the "cold molecules" experiments at the Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Orsay, France and to the "large-gyrolaser" INFN project G-Pisa. They are currently involved in the INFN project GINGER for the development of a multiple gyrolasers system to measure frame dragging and gravito-magnetism effects of general relativity.