University of Rome Tor Vergata (URTV), Italy
Official web-page: web.uniroma2.itTor Vergata Unit:
Our team is formed by three condensed matter theorists with strong computational competences [O.Pulci, M.Palummo, G.Stefanucci] and by three experimentalists [M. De Crescenzi, P. Castrucci, M. Scarselli] with long-standing competences on the synthesis of carbon nanostructured materials and on their application as active media in opto-electronic devices and sensors.
From theoretical side the main research activity combines developments of fundamental theory of condensed
matter physics with practical simulations of advanced materials, nanostructures, liquids and organic molecules.
The principal expertise cover mean field and many-body theories, quantum transport, electron and optical
spectroscopies, time-resolved spectroscopies, as well as modeling of strongly correlated materials.
One of the main competences is on ab-initio methods based on Density functional Theory (DFT) and Many-Body
Perturbation Theory (MBPT, namely GW and Bethe-Salpeter Equation) which represent the state of the art to
study ground and excited states of materials with different dimensionality and gain valuable microscopic
insight that can complement experiments and extend their scope. The theoretical components of the TOV unit offer
long-standing experience in both the theoretical development and application of these methods.
The expertise in solids, surfaces and nanostructures is second-to-none
(see e.g.:
Publications).
The unit is one of the nodes of the European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF) (
www.etsf.eu)
which involves many European research groups expert on first-principles theoretical spectroscopies.
The experimental research activity focuses on the investigation of the structural and electronic
properties of surfaces both clean and after interacting with chemisorbed species by means of spectroscopic
techniques such as Auger, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy
(EELS) and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) that operate in the Tor Vergata laboratory. In the same laboratory,
the research group runs two apparatus for synthesis of carbon nanomaterials obtained from a chemical vapor
deposition process (CVD). The most extensive carbon nanomaterials studied are carbon nanotubes (CNT)
both single walled (SW) and multi-walled (MW), but also carbon spheres, and carbon nanotube networks that
have a peculiar 3D organization. The objective is to combine synthesis, characterization to probe and tailor
their structure to obtain improved mechanical, optical and electronic properties. In particular, we are working
on coatings, solar cells, sensors, water purification and mechanical transducers.
See these links: Condensed Matter Theory Group
and Carbon Lab.
University of Exeter (UNEXE), UK
Official web-page: www.exeter.ac.ukUK node
The host organization of the UNEXE team is the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter (Exeter, UK). The University of Exeter is a leading UK university with over 18,000 students, ranked in the top 10 of more than 100 UK universities in the latest league tables. The Physics and Astronomy section of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences conducts research in different areas of modern physics and consists of the Astrophysics group, the Biomedical Physics group, the Electromagnetic Materials group, and the Quantum Systems and Nanomaterials group. Particularly, the last group is focused on the experimental and theoretical studies of different nanostructures including carbon nanotubes and graphene, conventional semiconductor nanoscale systems and quantum liquids. Research in the area of carbon-based nanostructures is central to the University of Exeter, which is home of the Centre for Graphene Science. The Centre for Graphene Science, which is shared between Exeter and Bath Universities, was established in 2009 by a 5 million pound grant from the UK Engineering and Physics Research Council (EPSRC) with an additional contribution of 850 thousand pounds from the universities. 3/4 of all these funds have been allocated to Exeter. UNEXE possesses a powerful supercomputing cluster, which will be used for work on the current project.
Prof. M. Portnoi, head of the UK node, will be coordinating all project-related
activities at the UNEXE node and take part in the study of collective electronic and
optical phenomena in carbon nanotube arrays, graphene and topological insulators.
His expertise lies in theoretical and mathematical physics including quantum and
statistical mechanics of low-dimensional systems and physics of optoelectronic
nanodevices and carbon-based nanostructures.
See http://newton.ex.ac.uk/staff/MEP/.
The group possesses necessary office space for accepting incoming visits and has
access to the supercomputing cluster of the University of Exeter, as well as the
modern cleanroom facilities and equipment of the Graphene Centre. The group
maintains strong international links with partners from Iceland, Belarus, Brazil, Italy
and Russia.
University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Finland
Official web-page: www.uef.fiFinish node
The University of Eastern Finland (UEF, Itä-Suomen yliopisto) has been established in 2010 after merger of the University of Joensuu and the University of Kuopio. The merger of the two strong universities into the University of Eastern Finland is a response to the recent changes in the global research and innovation environment. The goal is to create a sufficiently large and operational unit, which is efficient in research, education and societal impact. The UEF team belongs to the Institute of Photonics at the Department of Physics and Mathematics of UEF, which has recently emerged as a leading research centre in the field of nanooptics and nanophotonics in Finland.
Prof. Yuri Svirko - head of Finish node - received PhD in Physics from Moscow State
University in 1983 and DSci from Russian Academy pf Science in 1994. In 1994-2001, he
worked at the University of Southampton (UK) and University of Tokyo (Japan) on nonlinear
optics and ultrafast polarization spectroscopy of nanostructures in capacity of a senior
research fellow. At the University of Eastern Finland he extended his research towards
nonlinear properties of nanocarbons and THz spectroscopy. He is currently heading the
Optical Materials Laboratory at UEF. Prof Svirko has published about 150 papers in peer-reviewers journals.
Dr Tommi Kaplas will be involved in the project in the capacity of postdoctoral researcher.
He will be working on the fabrication of multilayer graphene-polymer structures and
graphene based metamaterials. He will also perform characterization of nanocarbon materials
using micro-Raman and optical techniques.
Nanocarbon fabrication facilities at UEF include PE CVD system, which will be employed
for nanographite and nanodiamond films growth, and hydrocarbon thermal decomposition
system that enables the creation of graphene films of centimeter size.
Extensive clean-room facilities for the fabrication of micro- and nanostructured optical
components at the Institute of Photonics of UEF include Vistec EBPG-5000+ES EBL pattern
generator and a laser interference exposure system operating at 364 nm for the fabrication of
large-area 1D and 2D gratings. Substrate preparation and post-processing of patterned
structures are performed using spin-coating, sputter coating, and vacuum evaporation devices,
as well as reactive ion etching machines. The fabricated samples are characterized using a
profilometer, an atomic force microscope, a scanning electron microscope, and optical
measurement systems. Nonlinear optical and optoelectronic properties of nanomaterials are
studied with NIR and VIS z-scan and pump-probe laser systems with 50 fs and 150 fs long pulses.
University of Iceland (UI), Iceland
Official web-page: english.hi.isIcelandic node
Science Institute, University of Iceland was established 17th June 1911, on the centenary of the national hero of Iceland, 19th century Icelandic statesman Jón Sigurðsson, usually referred to as "president". The University of Iceland aims to be one of the world’s leading universities and apply approved standards to all quality assurance of its operations. The university holds itself and its lecturers, management and other staff to high standards. High demands are also made of students; this ensures that a degree from the University of Iceland is considered to be of high quality and is trusted all over the world.
The activity of the team lies mainly in theoretical mesoscopic optics and quantum
transport. In the field of mesoscopic optics which is of particular importance for the
goals of the present project, the group is actively working on FIR- absorbtion of
nano-scale systems, the optics of photonic crystals dynamics of exciton-polaritons
in semiconductor microcavities and the quantum optics of carbon based
nanostructures. The research lines include the formulation of quantum kinetic
equations for energy and polarization relaxation of cavity polaritons, theoretical
modelling of nano-scale spinoptronic devices and the interplay between the spin
dynamics and coherence in quantum microcavities. The theoretical works of the
group has had an impact on the experimental research in physics of microcavities
and mesoscopic transport.
Prof. I.A. Shelykh - head of the Icelandic node- will be responsible for the overall
coordination of work by the Icelandic node and participate in the theoretical
description of the regime of strong coupling in graphene-based systems.
The group possesses the necessary office space for accepting incoming visits and
has access to the supercomputing cluster of the University of Iceland and Nordic
supercomputing cluster. The group maintains strong international links with
partners from UK, France, Italy, Brazil, Russia, and Singapore.
The CNR Institute SPIN (SPIN), Italy
Official web-page: www.spin.cnr.itSPIN CNR node
SPIN is a research institute of the National Council for Research in Italy. It is specialized in studies of superconductors and novel nanostructured materials. Professors Alexey Kavokin and Andrey Varlamov are internationally leading theoretical physicists who gave key contributions into the theory of superconductivity, Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons, thermo-electric and thermo-magnetic effects in a wide range of metal and semiconductor structures as well as in new two-dimensional crystals. Recently, SPIN group has proposed a new concept of terahertz laser: bosonic cascade laser based on the stimulation of radiative transitions by the Bose-Einstein condensates of excitons. Within the CoExAN project SPIN will contribute to the development of the mean field theory of radiative and transport phenomena in low-dimensional systems and materials, as well as to the metamaterial modelling.
Research Institute for Nuclear Problems of Belarusian State University (INP BSU), Belarus
Official web-page: inp.bsu.by
Belarusian State University, Institute for Nuclear Problems
is a national leader of the higher education in Belarus, and
it is a complex research and educational establishment with a clear innovative strategic
concept. The major directions of the scientific activity of the INP BSU are nuclear physics,
nuclear optics of polarised mediums, electrodynamics of condensed matter with complex
structure, applied electrodynamics of microwaves, physical basis of free electron lasers,
radiation protection in medicine and industry, etc.
Dr. Konstantin G. Batrakov is a senior researcher at the Institute for Nuclear Problems and an
associate professor at Belarus State University, Minsk, Belarus. He received his PhD in
Theoretical Physics in 1993 from the Institute for Nuclear Problems, Minsk, Belarus. The
results, obtained by Dr. Batrakov in co-authorship with his colleagues in the field of Free
Electron Lasers have been used in the first lasing of Volume Free Electron Laser in the
Institute for Nuclear Problems. His present research interest is possible graphene and carbon
nanotubes applications as monomolecular light emitters in the THz frequency region (nano-scale free electron laser).
Dr. Polina P. Kuzhir, PhD in
Theoretical physics in 1996 (Institute of Physics of NAS
Belarus), she is a head of the Laboratory of Electrodynamics of Inhomogeneous Media at the
INP BSU (Minsk, Belarus), is actively involved in the development the new research branch
- nanoelectromagnetics - based on present-day solid-state physics and classical methods of
electrodynamics of inhomogeneous media.
Prof. Sergey A. Maksimenko is principal researcher of the Laboratory of Electrodynamics of
Inhomogeneous Media at the INP BSU (Minsk, Belarus), director of INP BSU, and has a
broad range of research interests in classical electrodynamics and physics of nanostructures.
The area of his specific expertise within the proposed research is the electrodynamics of
different nanostructures, and, particularly, the electrodynamics of CNTs.
Yerevan State University (YSU), Armenia
Official web-page: ysu.am
Yerevan State University (YSU) is the leading university of Armenia. YSU has 17
faculties which provided 32 specializations. The educational and research processes
are conducted by more than 1600 highly qualified specialists and experts. Owing to
highly qualified scientists significant researches related to different modern
scientific branches are implemented at YSU.
The team consists from three theorists [G. Kryuchkyan, G. Gevorgyan, A. Shahinyan] with competences
on Quantum Optics and computer modeling of complex quantum systems and five PhD students [G. Abovyan,
G. Hovsepyan, A. Tamazyan, A. Harutunyan and V. Manukyan].
The previous scientific results of the team are on the field of quantum optics, photonics in structured
nonlinear media, elaboration of quantum optical devices and generation of various quantum states of
intracavity modes, vacuum QED effects and high-performance calculations in areas of quantum dissipative
nonlinear systems.
Our current research is focused on modeling and simulation of open quantum systems with strong
light-matter interactions in their applications to exciton-photon physics, formation of polariton
modes and their collective properties in semiconductor nanostructures, calculations of spectral lines
of driven carbon-based nanostructures such as carbon nanotube quantum dots, etc. One of the main competences
is on the package of computer programs based on the method of quantum trajectories for solving master
equations numerically for various operational regimes, including excitation of nano-materials by a train of pulses
or time-modulated external fields. Another research activity is devoted to quantum optics of semiconductor
nanostructures and carbon-based nanostructures dressed by multimode frequency fields in application to the
resonance fluorescence, probe field spectroscopy of advanced nanostructures and generation of microwave,
terahertz and optical light fields. This direction is also related to microcavity configurations leading
to strong coupling between excitations in nanostructures and confined modes of microcavities in regimes
of few-polariton excitations including photon and polariton blockades, quantum statistics of microcavity
polaritons, phase-space monitoring on the Wigner functions and production of exciton-photon qubits in
pulse-driven semiconductor microcavities.
De La Salle University (DLSU), Philippines
Official web-page: www.dlsu.edu.ph
De La Salle University (DLSU) is one of the best universities in the Philippines,
renowned for its academic excellence, research, and involved community service.
The De La Salle University team is led by R. R. Hartmann. His research focuses on the electronic
and optical properties of carbon based nanomaterials. His work on carbon nanotubes is aimed at
their prospective applications to terahertz optoelectronics and includes the study of optical
transitions and excitons in narrow-gap carbon nanotubes.
V.Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (ISP), Ukraine
Official web-page:www.isp.kiev.uaISP node
V.Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics, NAS Ukraine activities are theoretical. We are experts in computational physics applied to the study of electronic and optical properties of bulk and quantum-size structures (DFT, GW, and DFT-MD) as well as experts in parallel programming, HPC, experimental data processing.
Dr. Igor Kupchak – head of ISP node. He will be responsible for ab-initio (GW,
TDDFT) code development and adoption for specified supercomputer architecture;
experimental data processing.
