UNIVERSITA’ DEL SALENTO
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Innovazione
Research topics
1. DESIGN, FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF OPTOELECTRONIC AND PHOTONIC DEVICES
M. De Vittorio, L. Martiradonna, L. Sileo, M. Amato
Collaborations: Harvard, Paris LKB, Minatec Grenoble, Cork, Univ. Of Glasgow, Univ. Of Bath, TU Tallinn, DTU Copenaghen
DESIGN, FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF OPTOELECTRONIC AND PHOTONIC DEVICES
M. De Vittorio, L. Martiradonna, L. Sileo, M. Amato
This activity is devoted to the design and fabrication of micro and nanodevices based on both novel materials and nanostructures and on advanced architectures. The application of quantum dots (QD) as active material in optical devices has attracted much attention, due to the potential advantages offered by three-dimensionally confined systems and their discretized electronic density of states. Two different approaches are being pursued at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory in Lecce for the fabrication of QDs based devices: epitaxial self-organized QDs applied to ultra fast lasers for telecom applications and colloidal nanostructures for quantum cryptography, photovoltaic devices and tunable LEDs and displays.
A new and powerful class of colloidal quantum nanostructures (Quantum dots, rods and tetrapods) synthesized by wet techniques is also being developed and applied to novel quantum photonic devices. Photonic devices such as photonic crystal membrane resonators, nanodisplay and multicolour light sources are being fabricated by direct e-beam and optical lithography on a resist/nanocrystals blend.
Their quantum nature makes NCs very promising also for single photon emission at room temperature. Their emission properties, in terms of radiative lifetime and photon polarization, can be tuned drawing a viable strategy for their exploitation as room-temperature single photon sources for quantum information and quantum telecommunications.
The design and fabrication of ultra-compact quantum photonic devices based on two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D-PC) technology is also pursued. Photonic crystals (PC) are promising systems to tailor the propagation of light and to control the spontaneous and stimulated emission of light-emitting devices. PC technology will enable applications such as compact filters, sharply bent waveguides or highly efficient light-emitting devices. To this aim the nanotechnology group at University of Salento is exploiting the available technologies (electron beam lithography, epitaxial and dielectric deposition and deep etching) to the fabrication of 2D-PC planar devices. Fabricated nanoresonators exhibit single mode operation and Q-factors both in the visible and in the infrared spectral ranges. This technology has been applied to the optical readout of lab-on-chips, demonstrating a 100-fold increase of the signal to noise ratio and its spectral tagging.
The micro and nanodevices research line is also devoted to the design, fabrication and development of MEMS systems. MEMS for mechanical energy harvesting, tactile devices and displays and biomimetic sensors are being developed. MEMS sensors for artificial hair cells to be applied in fish robots, or for inner ear prosthetic are fabricated by exploiting the self rolling technology for strain driven cantilever. Piezo MEMS are also exploited for harvesting vibration mechanical energy at low frequencies. Finally micro and nanodevices are being fabricated and tested for in-vitro and in-vivo measuring of neural activity in brain based on GaAs/AlGaAs HEMT, nanoelectrodes fabricated by beam induced deposition (IBID/EBID) and nanocomposite materials.
Pubblications 2011
1) Qualtieri, A; Rizzi, F.; Todaro, M.T.; Passaseo, A.; Cingolani, R.; De Vittorio, M., Stress-driven AlN cantilever-based flow sensor for fish lateral line system, Microelectronic Engineering, v 88, n 8, p 2376-2378, August 2011.
2) Blasi, L.; Todaro, M.T.; Cingolani, R.; Passaseo, A.; De Vittorio, M.; Gigli, G., Polymeric rolled-up microtubes by using strained semiconductor templates, Microelectronic Engineering, v 88, n 8, p 2211-2213, August 2011.
3) Pisanello, F.; Qualtieri, A.; Leménager, G.; Martiradonna, L.; Stomeo, T.; Cingolani, R.; Bramati, A.; De Vittorio, M., Single colloidal quantum dots as sources of single photons for quantum cryptography, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, v 7947, 2011, (Invited).
4) Massaro, A.; De Guido, S.; Ingrosso, I.; Cingolani, R.; De Vittorio, M.; Cori, M.; Bertacchini, A.; Larcher, L.; Passaseo, A., Freestanding piezoelectric rings for high efficiency energy harvesting at low frequency, Applied Physics Letters, v 98, n 5, January 31, 2011 (DOI: 10.1063/1.3551725)
5) Stomeo, T. ; Grande, M.; Rainò, G.; Passaseo, A.; D'Orazio, A.; Marrocco, V.; Cingolani, R.; Locatelli, A.; Modotto, D.; De Angelis, C.; De Vittorio, M., Optical filter based on a coupled bilayer photonic crystal, Microelectronic Engineering, v 88, n 8, p 2771-2774, August 2011.
6) Massaro, A.; Venanzoni, G.; Farina, M.; Morini, A.; Rozzi, T.; Cingolani, R.; Passaseo, A.; De Vittorio, M., Experimental pressure sensing and technology of piezoelectric microwave/RF MEMS filters, International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies, v 3, n 5, p 587-593, October 2011
7) F. Pisanello, L. Martiradonna, A. Qualtieri, T. Stomeo, M. Grande, P.P. Pompa, R. Cingolani, A. Bramati, M. De Vittorio, “Silicon Nitride PhC Nanocavities as Versatile Platform for Visible Spectral Range Devices”, Photonics and Nanostructures - Fundamentals and Applications, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, DOI information: 10.1016/j.photonics.2011.08.003
8) M. Grande, M. A. Vincenti, T. Stomeo, G. Morea, R. Marani, V. Marrocco, V. Petruzzelli, A. D’Orazio, R. Cingolani, M. De Vittorio, D. de Ceglia and M. Scalora, “Experimental demonstration of a novel bio-sensing platform via plasmonic band gap formation in gold nano-patch arrays” Optics Express, Vol. 19, 22, p. 21385, 2011. Highlight: paper selected for publication in Virtual Journal of Biomedical Optics
9) Bertacchini, A.; Scorcioni, S.; Dondi, D.; Larcher, L.; Pavan, P.; Todaro, M.T.; Campa, A.; Caretto, G.; Petroni, S.; Passaseo, A.; De Vittorio, M., AlN-based MEMS devices for vibrational energy harvesting applications, Proceedings of the 41st European Solid-State Device Research Conference, p 119-122, 2011, ESSDERC 2011
10) Martiradonna, Luigi; Pisanello, Ferruccio; Stomeo, Tiziana; Qualtieri, Antonio; Vecchio, Giuseppe; Sabella, Stefania; De Vittorio, Massimo; Pompa, Pier Paolo, Silicon nitride photonic crystal nanocavities for biochip applications, proceedings of 13th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks, ICTON 2011, 2011, DOI: 10.1109/ICTON.2011.5970900
11) Petroni, Simona; Tegola, Carola La; Caretto, Giuseppe; Campa, Adriana; Passaseo, Adriana; De Vittorio, Massimo; Cingolani, Roberto, Aluminum Nitride piezo-MEMS on polyimide flexible substrates, Microelectronic Engineering, v 88, n 8, p 2372-2375, August 2011.
12) G. Maiorano, L. Rizzello, M. A. Malvindi, S. S. Shankar, L. Martiradonna, A. Falqui, R. Cingolani, P. P. Pompa, “Monodispersed and size-controlled multibranched gold nanoparticles with nanoscale tuning of surface morphology”, Nanoscale, v.3, p.2227, 2011
13) I. S. Bayer, D. Fragouli, P. J. Martorana, L. Martiradonna, R. Cingolani, A. Athanassiou, “Solvent resistant superhydrophobic films from self-emulsifying carnauba wax–alcohol emulsions”, Soft Matter, v.7, p.7939, 2011.
14) L. De Marco, M. Manca, R. Buonsanti, R. Giannuzzi, F. Malara, P. Pareo, L. Martiradonna, N.M. Giancaspro, P.D. Cozzoli, G. Gigli, “High-quality photoelectrodes based on shape-tailored TiO2 nanocrystals for dye-sensitized solar cells”, J. of Materials Chemistry, v.21, p.13371, 2011
15) P. Kshirsagar, S. Shiv Shankar, M. Malvindi, L. Martiradonna, R. Cingolani, P.P. Pompa, “Synthesis of highly stable Silver nanoparticles by photoreduction and their size fractionation by phase transfer method”, Colloids & Surf. A, v.392, p.264, 2011.