Research

I'm a condensed matter physicist with over 15 years of experience in the field of quantum transport, modeling and simulation of nanomaterials and nanodevices. After working in Italy, France and Germany and Argentina, I joined the Department of Physics (FCFM) of the University of Chile. Here I lead an interdisciplinary team (physicists and chemists) working on the electronic and optoelectronic properties of nanomaterials and nanodevices.

Most of my research is focused on the electrical (quantum transport) and opto-electronic properties of two dimensional nanomaterials (graphene-based, TMDCs) and topological insulators. In particular, my efforts are aimed to the understanding and control of quantum effects arising from time-dependent fields, many-body interactions and decoherence. At the moment the questions that fuel my attention have to do with new phases of (non-equilibrium) topological insulators. The idea behind one of them is generating and tuning topologically protected states by using a laser field. Another research line is the search for topological states in non-Hermitian systems.

Other research interests include the generation of a directed current at zero bias through quantum interference (quantum pumping) and the synthesis and Raman characterization of graphene multilayers by liquid-phase exfoliation (experimental, see for example this paper). For more details on my research you can also visit my publications page or check the links in the Outreach section.

Research impact

Metrics

Research for impact  (not impact factor): We strive to make research with an impact on the community and the shaping of new ideas, irrespective of where it is published. A few of our papers have been listed among the top 1% among all the papers published in Physics in the same publication year. This is the case, for example, of PRB 97 121401 (2018) which was featured among the top 4 (out of 10.127) most cited items of Physical Review B (source: InCites Journal Citation Reports released in 2021),and also of EPJST 227 1295 (2018) which was the most cited paper of that journal (out of 361).

Two of our earlier papers on Floquet topological states made half of the core highly cited papers in an emerging research front reported by Thomson Reuters (Periodically driven systems, 2017).

 

Research Highlights