The POLICRYPS liquid-crystalline structure for optical applications

• Roberto Caputo

  Roberto Caputo obtained his MSc in Physics from the University of Calabria in 2000. In the same year, he received a post-graduate scholarship from INFM (National Institute for the Physics of Matter) for continuing his master thesis research. In 2002, he started his PhD in Physics. In 2005, he obtained a Marie Curie Post-Doc Fellowship for the ‘Transfer of Knowledge’ at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, under the supervision of Dr. Hugo Cornelissen. During the stay at Philips, his research work was mainly focused on the realization of the new concept LCD backlight systems. In 2007, he obtained a 2-year Marie Curie reintegration grant with a project on research and development of highly efficient organic lasing structures. In the same year, he obtained a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Calabria, and he actually is a member of CNR-NANOTEC and the Physics Department of the University of Calabria. His scientific activity is mainly oriented to the study and realization of micro- and nano-scale functional systems in organic composite materials. The results of this research span from fundamental physics advances to innovative high-tech applications. Recently, he spent a 2-year period at the University of Technology of Troyes to perform advanced studies on Active Plasmonics. He has authored and co-authored more than 70 papers on international journals, four international patents, and about 40 communications to scientific conferences and symposia. Moreover, he co-chaired the European COST Action IC1208 ‘Integrating devices and materials: a challenge for new instrumentation in ICT’. During his career, he supervised more than 15 Master thesis students and three PhD fellows.

  , Antonio De Luca

  Antonio De Luca is an Associate Professor at the University of Calabria, since 2014. In 2009/2010 he was a CNR-IPCF researcher. In 2007, he was the Senior Post Doc at Case Western Reserve University (USA), where he passed a second research period (2012–2014) as Senior Research Associate. He has high experience in optical setups, spectroscopic pump-probe systems, ellipsometry, near-field microscopy, as well as simulation codes. His main areas of interest are molecular reorientation effects in liquid crystals, characterization of spatial solitons in liquid crystals, organic lasers in confined structures, random lasers in soft materials, SNOM nanotomography in soft materials, loss compensation in metamaterial, dielectric singularities in hyperbolic metamaterial gain-loss control, and thermo-plasmonic effects at the nanoscale. Antonio De Luca is a co-author of more than 90 scientific publications in international journals, with an H-index of 21 and more than 1800 citations. He was the PI of a 3-year, funded PRIN 2102 national project, titled: ‘Plasmon-gain coupling in metal-dielectric nanostructures: compensation of losses towards laser action’ (2014–2017) and the key personnel of a European project funded under the 7th Framework Program – FP7-NMP-2008-SMALL-2, titled: ‘METACHEM – Nanochemistry and self-assembly routes to metamaterials for visible light’ (2009–2103).

  , Giuseppe Strangi

  Giuseppe Strangi (http://physics.case.edu/faculty/giuseppe-strangi/) is a Professor of Physics and Ohio Research Scholar in Surfaces of Advanced Materials at Case Western Reserve University. He leads the Nanoplasm Labs (http://nanoplasm.case.edu) at CWRU Cleveland, and he is a senior scientist of the National Research Council (CNR-Italy). Strangi is the President of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation ‘Con il Cuore’, a national foundation that supports cancer research in Europe, and he is the General Chair of the International Conference – NANOPLASM ‘New Frontiers in Plasmonics and Nanophotonics’. Strangi’s research interests include condensed matter physics, nano-photonics and plasmonics of electromagnetic materials and cancer nanotechnology. He is a fellow of The Institute of Science of the Origins and of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (CWRU), a senior member of the Optical Society of America and American Physical Society.

  , Roberto Bartolino

  Roberto Bartolino Born in Rome on July 26, 1948, Graduate in Physics in Rome in 1972, Doctorat es Sciences Physiques (PhD) Paris XI Orsay in 1982, Full professor of Applied Physics since 1986, Laurea honoris causa in Material and Natural Sciences, University of Bucharest in 2005, On leave to the National Academy dei Lincei in the period 2013–2016, Administrative duties: director of the Physics Department, dean of the science faculty, director of the doctoral school, Advisor in several scientific and technological Italian institutions, Coordinator of the Applied Physics panel for the research national evaluation 2011–2014, Coauthor of about 170 scientific papers in liquid crystals and soft matter physics, H factor 32, citation numbers>3200.

  , Cesare Umeton

  Cesare P. Umeton was born in Marsala (Italy) in 1949 and received his Laurea degree in Physics with honors at the University of Pisa in 1974. He was Assistant Professor, Researcher, and Fixed Term Professor and Associate Professor at the Physics Department of the University of Calabria. Since 2001, he is Full Professor of Experimental Physics at the same department, where he was President of the ‘Degree course in Materials Science’, and is now coordinator of the ‘Optics Group’. He is an OSA fellow, President of the ‘Association for Novel Optical Materials and Applications (ANOMA)’, member of several national and international scientific associations, member of the organizing committee of several international conferences; he is, and has been, scientific manager of several national and international projects. His research interests are in the field of atomic and molecular physics, magnetic resonance and optics of liquid crystals, and liquid crystalline composite materials. He is co-author of more than 170 articles that appeared in international journals of Physics and Material Science, more than 150 communications at international conferences, and co-author of international patents.

  , Luciano De Sio

  Luciano De Sio is an assistant professor at the Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotecnologies (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy). He graduated with a Physics degree from the University of Calabria, Italy, in 2003 and did his PhD in Science and Technology of Mesophases and Molecular Materials from the same university in 2006. He was a senior research scientist at the Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Company, USA, for almost 5 years (2013–2018). He has extensive experience in the fields of plasmonics, optofluidics, nanomedicine, polymers, optofluidics, and liquid crystals. He has coauthored 90 articles in physics, several book chapters, and 18 international patents and delivered more than 30 scientific communications at conferences. He edited the book ‘Active Plasmonic Nanomaterials’. He is also the principal investigator of an international project of the European Office of Aerospace Research and Development (EOARD), supported by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

  , Alessandro Veltri

  Alessandro Veltri received his PhD in Physics in 2005 and has currently a Full Professor position at the Department of Physics of the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador. During the last 15 years, Dr. Veltri published several scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented his work in many international conferences. His research interests include wave propagation, nonlinear optics, liquid crystals, random systems, photochemistry in composite materials, all optical materials, metamaterials, and hybrid plasmonics. Dr. Veltri worked as a post-doc researcher for the University of Calabria in Italy, the University of Bordeaux, and the Centre de Researche Paul Pascal in France. He was also a visiting researcher at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a theorist who used to work side by side with experimentalists, a Linux expert with extensive experience in coding (C, C++, Fortran 77/90/9 5, and Python), and he is trained in high-performance parallel computing and code optimization.

  , Svetlana Serak

  Svetlana Serak is a Senior Optical Engineer at Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Corporation. She received a PhD degree in Physics, with specialization on Physical and Quantum Electronics from the Institute of Electronics of the Belarussian Academy of Sciences (Minsk, 1986), where she had a position of the Head of Nonlinear Optics Group. Her group was the first to demonstrate trans-cis isomerization induced with nanosecond laser pulses in azobenzene liquid crystals (1979). Her experience and interests relate to laser physics and engineering, optics, electro-and nonlinear optics of liquid crystals, dynamic holography and phase conjugation, beam combining and beam steering, optical switching and information recording, diffractive waveplates, including gratings and lenses. She has over 100 publications, book chapters, and a series of patents.

  and Nelson Tabiryan

  Nelson Tabiryan is the CEO of Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Corporation. He received his PhD degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Institute of Physical Investigations of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, in 1982 and his DSc degree from the Highest Qualifying Commission of the USSR in 1986. He is an OSA fellow and a recipient of the Frederiks Medal. He is the Chairman of Optics of Liquid Crystals (OLC) advisory board (2007–2011); Chairman and co-chairman of international meetings OLC-2005 (Sand Key, Florida), OLC-2007 (Puebla, Mexico), SPIE’s Display Sciences (Berlin, Germany, 1996). He is an Alexander von Humboldt Stipendium (1992–1994) recipient and a keynote, plenary, and invited speaker in many major conferences. He has over 250 refereed publications, a monograph, and was a guest editor for conference proceedings. His interests and expertise include diffractive waveplates; optics, electro-optics, and nonlinear optics of liquid crystals; polarization holography; displays; control and characterization of laser beams.