Paola Luches graduated in Physics at the University of Modena in 1995 and she received her PhD in Physics in 1999 from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Since 2003 she has been employed as a researcher at INFM and at CNR, and she is presently working at Nanoscience Institute. She spent short research stays at different research institutions, among which A.F. Ioffe Institute”, S. Petersburg, Russia and AGH University in Krakow, Poland. She has been responsible of tens of experiments at synchrotron radiation facilities and, more recently, at table-top ultrafast laser shared facilities and at free electron laser facilities. She is presently principal investigator of a PRIN project and of a MAECI international research project. She is co-author of more than 110 scientific publications and of 3 book chapters. The h-index of her publications is 27 according to WoS and 32 according to Google Scholar. She is a member of “Nano and Physical Science PhD School” board of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia since 2013 and she has been supervising undergraduate students, as well as 6 PhD students. She has given more than 20 invited talks at national and international conferences, and seminars at different foreign research institutions. She is member of the International Scientific board of IWOX (International Workshop on Oxides) conferences series since 2012 and of other international conferences. She is a member of the proposal review panel for the FXE Instrument at the European XFEL since 2022 and of other international evaluation panels.
Paola Luches’s research interests are focused on oxide/metal materials at reduced dimensionality in view of their application in energy conversion and storage, catalysis, magnetism, plasmonics. In particular, she has a longstanding experience in the study of model systems, i.e. well controlled films and size-selected nanoparticles, aimed at the understanding of specific processes and of interfacial and surface interactions at the atomic scale. Her present research studies include reducible oxides, like CeO2 and Cu2O as thin films and nanoparticles, and their interaction with metals in the form of supported nanoparticles and dopant ions. The topics include the understanding and the optimization of the reducibility, the interaction with plasmonic nanoparticles, the mechanisms of plasmonic energy transfer from metal nanoparticles to oxides, and the dynamics of photo-excited states. A further research topic concerns the reactivity of reducible oxides towards simple molecules, like H2 and H2O, in view of the design of innovative electrodes for fuel cells and photoelectrolyzers and of efficient, stable and non-critical photocatalytic materials.
She has a longstanding experience with the use of physical synthesis techniques, like reactive MBE and magnetron sputtering with inert gas aggregation. Characterization tools include surface science methods, namely photoelectron spectroscopies and electron diffraction, scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy, combined with transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation based techniques, like x-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation, and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction. More recently she developed an expertise on the use of ultrafast spectroscopies like femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and pump-probe x-ray absorption spectroscopy
E. Spurio, G. Bertoni, S. D’Addato, F. Alimonti, P. Luches. Mapping the local stoichiometry in Cu nanoparticles dur- ing controlled oxidation by STEM-EELS. Nanoscale 17, 4132 (2025);
A. Vikatakavi, S. Mauri, M. L. Rivera-Salazar, E. Dobovičnik, S. Pelatti, S. D’Addato, P. Torelli, P. Luches, and S. Benedetti. Role of Metal Dopants in Hydrogen Dissociation on Cu:CeO2 and Fe:CeO2 Surfaces Studied by Ambient-Pressure X‑ray Absorption Spectroscopy. ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 7, 2746−2754 (2024);
E. Spurio, J. S. Pelli Cresi, G. Ammirati, S. Pelatti, A. Paladini, S. D’Addato, S. Turchini, P. O’Keeffe, D. Catone, and P. Luches. Injecting electrons into CeO2 via photoexcitation of embedded Au nanoparticles. ACS Photonics, 10, 1566 (2023);
J. S. Pelli Cresi, E. Principi, E. Spurio, D. Catone, P. O'Keeffe, S. Turchini, S. Benedetti, A. Vikatakavi, S. D’Addato, R. Mincigrucci, L. Foglia, G. Kurdi, I. P. Nikolov, G. De Ninno, C. Masciovecchio, S. Nannarone, J. Kopula Kesavan, F. Boscherini and P. Luches. Ultrafast Dynamics of Plasmon-Mediated Charge Transfer in Ag@CeO2 studied by Free Electron Laser time-resolved X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy. Nano Letters 21, 1729 (2021);
J. S. Pelli Cresi, L. Di Mario, D. Catone, F. Martelli, A. Paladini, S. Turchini, S. D’Addato, P. Luches, and P. O'Keeffe. Ultrafast formation of small polarons and the optical gap in CeO2. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 11, 5686 (2020).
Istituto Nanoscienze
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
PEC: protocollo.nano@pec.cnr.it
Partita IVA 02118311006
Piazza San Silvestro 12
56127 Pisa, Italy
phone +39 050 509418
fax +39 050 509550
Istituto Nanoscienze Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Piazza San Silvestro 12, I
56127 Pisa
phone +39 050 509525/418
fax +39 050 509550
via Campi 213/A, I
41125 Modena 7
phone +39 059 2055629
fax +39 059 2055651″
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