I am a computational physicist, and I use computer simulations to investigate properties occurring at the nanoscale (i.e. one-billionth of a meter) in a vast range of materials relevant for electronics, photovoltaics, new materials discovery. This is an exciting field where many disciplines such as physics, biology, chemistry, merge and whose borders are not always well-defined.

Part of my research activity focuses on the study of charge transport processes in organic and hybrid systems. During my PhD I worked on the theoretical description of ballistic electronic transport in metal/organic nanojunctions, with particular interest in graphene-derived devices, and on the electron dynamics at complex organic/inorganic interfaces such as those occurring in dye sensitized solar cells. The methods adopted were density functional theory (DFT) combined with the Non-Equilibrium Green’s function technique. Currently, my research spans over several areas. I am developing multiscale methods for the study of charge transport in organic semiconductors. In this respect, I focus on parametrizing a coarse tight binding Hamiltonian by extracting the parameters from DFT with the aid of Wannier functions.
I am also active in the study of layered compounds such as metal dichalcogenides, which are almost two-dimensional materials with potential device applications.

I am involved in the study and design of new nanomaterials for photovoltaic applications, and in the last years I have been focusing on the hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite, the most novel and promising materials class in the solar energy arena. In this regard my research is aimed at deeper understanding of their intrinsic properties and searching more efficient  compounds.

Selected Publications

Full list of publication available at Google Scholar