People

Alessandro Tredicucci is the project leader of SouLMan. Currently a full professor at University of Pisa and a CNR associate, Alessandro has led his group to the realization of the first THz semiconductor heterostructure laser in 2002, a milestone achievement in opto-electronics, promising to open the way for the development of wide-spread THz technology. Starting from his experience in the development of THz-photonics and intersubband optoelectronic devices, with SouLMan he aims at integrating new functionalities in quantum cascade systems as well as investigating new physical regimes in which mechanical resonators are probed and controlled by electromagnetic radiation in-between optics and electronics.

After obtaining his Ph.D. at University of Trento in the topics of silicon photonics, Alessandro moved to Pisa where he started working with THz photonic devices, being involved in the development of semiconductor nanowire based THz detectors. After that, he joined Oskar Painter group at California Institute of Technology as a Marie Curie fellow, where he worked on hybrid opto- and electro-mechanical system. Back at NEST Lab. in Pisa he is now devoting his experience in optomechanics working on SouLMan as well as starting several nanomechanics-related activities such as strain control of graphene layers, coherent phonon emission in superconducting junctions and self-mixing interferometry in the near-infrared range with silicon nitride micromembranes.

Lorenzo Baldacci work is a crossover of many research fields: plasmonics, laser dynamics, active optomechanics and biophotonics. His first research activity focused on anti-lasing in plasmonic metamaterials and systems with strong matter-radiation coupling. Today, he is working on applied photonics, mainly on LC resonators interacting with biological system, and THz sensors for plant draught stress. He recently started exploring the new frontiers of active optomechanics in lasing cavities, where the external optical feedback brought by an oscillating reflector can perturb the photon population with tremendous effects, from improved stabilization to coherence collapse. Such systems offer the opportunity to study new phenomena, such as the route from chaos to uncertainty in mesoscale quantum systems, and improve new concepts in displacement detection.

Andrea Mari – CNR Postdoctoral fellow

Andrea Mari is a physicist working in the research fields of quantum optics, quantum opto-mechanics and quantum information. He is mainly interested in theoretical aspects and multi-disciplinary connections between the previous research areas. His research activity is currently focused on opto-mechanical thermal machines, electro-mechanical super-conductive devices, Gaussian channel theory, quantum thermodynamics and phenomenological aspects of quantum gravity.

Andrea graduated from University of Pisa in 2016, with a thesis on the theoretical investigation of graphene coupled with metasurfaces for enhanced Faraday rotation in the THz frequency range. He started his course for achieving a Ph.D. in the same year, his interests focused on the realization of devices where optomechanics is enabled through the Self-Mixing effect.

Luca Masini research interests focus on combining THz-related technology with biologically accessible platforms, such as microfluidic chips or in-vivo samples. He developed several fabrication techniques for THz sensors with a particular care on developing consumer accessible THz applications. Recently he has been involved in the realization of new class of THz quantum cascade lasers with mechanically actuable elements embedded in the cavity itself.