Alessandra Di Gaspare

Short Bio

I have joined the THz group at NEST in 2018. At present my experimental research is focused on the development of terahertz photonic structures with advanced experimental nanofabrication and spectroscopic tools. My main research activities are the spectral study of intersubband polaritons in THz quantum wells-based structures, and the realization and study of Graphene-based photonic devices like e.g. waveguides, modulators and metamaterials.

 

I have received my PhD in Physics at the Università di Roma "Roma Tre" in 2009. During my PhD thesis and early post-doc work, I have participated to several research projects on the development of micro- and nano- devices for the study of two-dimensional electronic systems for:

- quantum transport investigations;

-RF and millimeter wave applications;

-plasma wave effects for THz detection applications.

 

From 2014 to 2016, I have been Principal Investigator of the national project GARFIELD (Graphene Active FIlms for Electronic Devices and Radiation Detection) at the Laboratori Nazionali Frascati-INFN, a project funded by the Commisiione Nazionale 5 of the INFN. The project goals were the implementation of a platform for the synthesis and the characterization of Graphene within the lab hosting the project, and the realization and study of graphene devices for detection applications of recognized interest to the High Energy Physics (HEP) scientific community.

Before joining the THz group, I have been working at CNR-NANO form 2016 on the development of graphene polyfunctional solid state devices for photonics applications (from THz to mid-IR) and for HEP, in collaboration with INFN (Pisa), Università di Pisa and FBK (Trento).

 

I have collaborated to several experimental studies focused on the biosensing in the Mid-IR using 2D metamaterials. The developed approach has been included in a proposal recently funded by the Ministero della Salute within the program “Ricerca Finalizzata 2016 – Sezione Giovani Ricercatori”.

Research Interests

THz and Mid-IR devices and applications:

Terahertz Random Quantum Cascade Lasers

Graphene hybrid device for THz photonics: waveguides, modulators and metamaterials;

Mid-IR plasmonic devices for biosensing applications.

Selected Recent Projects

H2020-FETOPEN-2021-2025: Extreme Optical Nonlinearities in 2D materials for Far-Infrared Photonics (EXTREME-IR)

Selected Publications

“Polarization analysis of random THz lasers, APL Photonics 6 (7)”, A Di Gaspare and MS Vitiello, 070805 (2021).

"Grating‐Gated, Graphene‐On‐Polyimide Terahertz Modulators, Advanced Functional Materials 31 (10)", A. Di Gaspare et al, Tunable, 2008039 (2020).

"Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy as a useful tool for the automated classification of cancer cell-derived exosomes obtained under different culture conditions", S. Romanò, et al, Analytica Chimica Acta 1140, 219-227 (2020).

"Homogeneous quantum cascade lasers operating as terahertz frequency combs over their entire operational regime", A. Di Gaspare et al, Nanophotonics 10 (1), 181-186 (2020).