Massimo Rontani

Short Bio

Education
1997-1999 PhD in Physics, University of Modena, Italy.

Appointments
- March 2003 - present: CNR-NANO Research Center S3, Modena, Italy. Research staff.
- December 1999 - February 2003: Department of Physics, University of Modena, Italy. INFM Postdoctoral Researcher.
- August 1998 - August 1999: Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley. Research activity, within the Italian PhD course, under the additional supervision of Prof. L. J. Sham (UCSD).

Research Interests

  • Theoretical investigation of few- and many-body effects in nanostructures and low-dimensional systems.
  • Long-range interactions in quantum materials and permanent Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons by combining first-principles and model approaches.
    See the website https://excitonic-insulator.nano.cnr.it/ for more information.
  • Few-body physics of cold Fermi atoms using full configuration interaction.

Selected Recent Projects

Prin 2017 Excitonic insulator in two-dimensional long-range interacting systems (EXC-INS)

Selected Publications

S. S. Ataei, D. Varsano, E. Molinari, M. Rontani, Evidence of ideal excitonic insulator in bulk MoS2 under pressure, PNAS 118, e2010110118 (2021).

D. Varsano, M. Palummo, E. Molinari, M. Rontani, A monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide as a topological excitonic insulator, Nature Nanotech. 15, 367-372 (2020).

J. O. Island, M. Ostermann, L. Aspitarte, E. D. Minot, D. Varsano, E. Molinari, M. Rontani, G. A. Steele, Interaction-driven giant orbital magnetic moments in carbon nanotubes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 127704 (2018).

D. Varsano, S. Sorella, D. Sangalli, M. Barborini, S. Corni, E. Molinari, M. Rontani, Carbon nanotubes as excitonic insulators, Nature Commun. 8, 1461 (2017).

F. Rossella, A. Bertoni, D. Ercolani, M. Rontani, L. Sorba, F. Beltram, S. Roddaro, Nanoscale spin rectifiers controlled by the Stark effect, Nature Nanotech. 9, 997 (2014).

S. Pecker, F. Kuemmeth, A. Secchi, M. Rontani, D. C. Ralph, P. L. McEuen, S. Ilani, Observation and spectroscopy of a two-electron Wigner molecule in an ultraclean carbon nanotube, Nature Phys. 9, 576 (2013).

D. Toroz, M. Rontani, S. Corni, Proposed alteration of images of molecular orbitals obtained using a scanning tunneling microscope as a probe of electron correlation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 018305 (2013).

M. Rontani, Tunneling theory of two interacting atoms in a trap, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 115302 (2012).

M. Rontani, J. Armstrong, Y. Yu, S. Åberg, S. M. Reimann, Cold fermionic atoms in two-dimensional traps - Pairing versus Hund's rule, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 060401 (2009).

S. Kalliakos, M. Rontani, V. Pellegrini, C. P. Garcia, A. Pinczuk, G. Goldoni, E. Molinari, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West, A molecular state of correlated electrons in a quantum dot, Nature Phys. 4, 467 (2008).

M. Rontani, Friedel sum rule for an interacting multiorbital quantum dot, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 076801 (2006).

M. Rontani, L. J. Sham, Coherent transport in a homojunction between an excitonic insulator and semimetal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 186404 (2005).