The research activity concerns the development of new laser sources for the generation of ultrashort optical pulses (in the femtosecond regime) and their application to the study of dynamical processes in materials. This research exploits state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies in the field of lasers, with important implications in non-linear optics, optical communications and material diagnostics. The main research projects are:

• Generation of few-optical-cycle laser pulses for extreme non-linear optics applications (generation of high-order harmonics;
• Attosecond pulses and related technologies;
• Application of femtosecond pulses to the study of electronic state dynamics in low-dimensional materials, such as nanoparticles, polymers and in general carbon-based nano-structured materials;
• Ultrashort laser sources tunable from the near-infrared to the visible-ultraviolet, for spectroscopical applications with high temporal resolution;
• Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopes (SNOM) with high spatial and temporal resolution for nano-optical applications. These research projects are part of the research activities of the ULTRAS research centers and the IFN at the Department of Physics.

The above projects are also part of the research activity of the Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie (IFN ↗) of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR ↗) The realized instrumentation is part of the "Centre for Ultrafast Science and Biomedical Otics" (CUSBO ↗) European Facility, considered by the EU as an "European Large Scale Infrastructure" for its innovative characteristics.

Labs