Scientific supervisor/Principal Investigator(PI): sNOm Lab (supra Nano-Optics milano)

Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, and PI of the sNOm Laboratory “supra Nano-Optics Milano,” which currently studies linear and nonlinear optical properties of nanoantennas and metasurfaces with the goal of exploiting nonlinear conversion processes for sensing, optical logic operations and THz generation.

He received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2008 from Politecnico di Milano under the supervision of Prof. Giulio Cerullo and later worked as a Post-Doc in the nano-optics group led by Prof. Vahid Sandoghdar at ETH Zurich (2008-11).

Associate Editor at Optics Express, he chairs the “Plasmonics and Metamaterial” committee of the CLEO-EQEC Congress.

He has published more than 150 scientific papers and conference proceedings with more than 4,000 citations and received the Italian qualification for full professor in 2020. (update 01/2025)

Below two recent review articles on nonlinear optics at the nanoscale and in metasurfaces and their perspectives:

A. Fedotova et al. "Lithium niobate meta-optics" ACS Photonics 9, 3745-3763 (2022) DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.2c00835

L. Bonacina, P.-F. Brevet, M. Finazzi, M. Celebrano "Harmonic generation at the nanoscale" J. Appl. Phys. 127, 230901 (2020) DOI: 10.1063/5.0006093

Here an interview for the podacst "Under the Microscope" @the Science Talk on the generation of harmonics in nanoantennas

Harmonic Generation with a Nanoscale Guitar String - INTRO

Harmonic Generation with a Nanoscale Guitar String - FULL INTERVIEW

The scientific activities of the sNOm laboratory focus on the development of platforms for nonlinear optical manipulation of light at the nanoscale: the so-called nonlinear nanoantennas and metasurfaces.

Below are our most relevant recent studies:

1. A. Di Francescantonio, et al. "Efficient GHz electro-optical modulation with a nonlocal lithium niobate metasurface in the linear and nonlinear regime", Just Submitted https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.03422
2. Y. Luan "All-optical polarization control and routing by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale" Just submitted https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.07714
3. A. Di Francescantonio, et al. “All-optical free-space routing of upconverted light by metasurfaces via nonlinear interferometry” Nature Nanotechnology 19, 298–305 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01549-2 News and Views: G. Grinblat, Nat. Nanotechnol. 19, 267–268 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01555-4
4. A. Di Francescantonio, et al. “Coherent Control of the Nonlinear Emission of Single Plasmonic Nanoantennas by Dual-Beam Pumping" Adv. Opt. Mat. 2200757, 1-8 (2022) COVER ARTICLE & Invited Paper https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202200757
5. M. Celebrano, et al. “Optical tuning of dielectric nanoantennas for thermo-optically reconfigurable nonlinear metasurfaces" Opt. Lett. 46, 2453-2456 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.420790
6. L. Carletti, et al. “Steering and Encoding the Polarization of the Second Harmonic in the Visible with a Monolithic LiNbO₃ Metasurface” ACS Photonics 8, 731-737 (2021) DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.1c00026
7. G. Soavi, et al. “Broadband, electrically tunable third-harmonic generation in graphene" Nature Nanotechnology 13, 583–588 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0145-8
8. M. Celebrano, et al. “Mode matching in multiresonant plasmonic nanoantennas for enhanced second harmonic generation” Nature Nanotechnology 10, 412-417 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.69

SCIENTIFIC CAREER IN DETAIL

(by clicking on the links you will be directed to the related scientific articles)

Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering: Optoelectronics

Degree awarded at: Politecnico di Milano

Thesis title: “Development of a near-field microscope with ultra-short pulse illumination” (in Italian).

Supervisor: Prof. G. Cerullo.

Ph.D. in Physics

At the Department of Physics (IFN) - Politecnico di Milano.

Title of thesis: “Near- and far-field imaging and spectroscopy of single nanoparticles” (in English).

Coordinator: Prof. S. De Silvestri, Tutor: Prof. G. Cerullo.

The doctoral activity was carried out in the group of Professor Sandro De Silvestri, who focuses his research on the development of ultrashort pulse laser sources and their applications. In particular, it focused on the development of a scanning near-field microscope (SNOM) coupled to ultrashort pulses. The microscope was then used to map with very high spatial resolution the nonlinear (second harmonic) optical response in metallic nanostructures generated by strong field confinements. Indeed, the geometry and material of such nanoparticles make them ideal antennas for collecting and radiating visible light. The characterization of the complex linear optical response of such antennas was derived experimentally by combining near-field and far-field microscopy. As a side project, a confocal microscope was developed to optically visualize field distributions in organic devices during operation, and to study the multi-photon photoluminescence of plasmonic nanostructures.

Research activities abroad during the Ph.D.

At the Laboratories of Chemical Physics at ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

March-October 2007. Supervisor: Prof. V. Sandoghdar

During the third year of the Ph.D. part of the scientific activity was carried out in the Nano-Optics group at ETH Zurich in the field of confocal microscopy applied to metal nanoparticle spectroscopy (nanoantennas for visible light).

Post-Doc Activity.

At the Laboratories of Chemical Physics at ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

July 2008-April 2011. Supervisor: Prof. V. Sandoghdar

My postdoctoral scientific activity was carried out in the Nano-optics group under the guidance of Prof. Vahid Sandoghdar at ETH Zurich. The main purpose of the research activity was to study alternative methods to fluorescence for the identification and spectroscopy of single emitters. In particular, it was possible to visualize single crystalline nano-emitters (quantum dots) based on the extinction of light produced by the nano-object. This made it possible to obtain information about the photophysics of such emitters that was hitherto inaccessible. By further improving the microscopy technique, it was possible to visualize a single molecule at room temperature without resorting to fluorescence. In a side project, single photons emitted from a molecule in a cryogenic state (ultra-narrow band) were coupled to a single receiver dipole (metal nanoparticle) with an efficiency greater than 50 %.

Activities as Researcher at the Polytechnic University of Milan

At the Physics Laboratories of the Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy)

Supervisor: Prof. M. Finazzi

I served as a permanent researcher from 2012 to 2018 when I became Associate Professor and PI of the sNOm laboratory of the Surfaces Group at the Department of Physics, Politecnico. As a researcher, I was involved in the study of linear and nonlinear properties of plasmonic nanostructures for applications to sensing of biological species in the context of high throughput screening. I also conducted studies on the optical properties produced by structural conformation, such as the chiro-optic response, in organic polymers at nano- and micrometer scales. The possibility of understanding and manipulating such responses at small spatial scales could open interesting prospects in the field of opto-electronics based on organic devices.

Detailed information on scientific-didactic activity and an exhaustive list of major publications can be found on my CV (in English).