Research
I’m a condensed matter physicist with over 20 years of experience in quantum transport and the modeling and simulation of nanomaterials and nanodevices. After working in Italy, France, Germany and Argentina, I joined the Department of Physics (FCFM) of the University of Chile, where I lead an interdisciplinary team of physicists and chemists studying the electronic and optoelectronic properties of these systems.
My research centers on the electrical (quantum transport) and optoelectronic properties of quantum materials — from two-dimensional nanomaterials (graphene-based, TMDCs) to topological, driven and non-Hermitian systems — with an emphasis on understanding and controlling quantum effects arising from time-dependent fields, many-body interactions and decoherence.
Current direction
Most recently, I have opened a new front on precision-induced irreversibility: precision appears nowhere among the variables of physical law, yet non-Hermitian evolution turns any finite precision into a falsifiable predictability horizon (Phys. Rev. A 114, 012207 (2026)). It grows out of my ongoing focus on non-Hermitian physics and the non-Hermitian skin effect — and, like the predictions before it, it is written to be tested.
Research lines
Non-Hermitian skin effect and topological states of non-Hermitian systems — the 2018 prediction that a pristine non-Hermitian lattice localizes all its states at the boundary, since observed in mechanical metamaterials, photonics, topoelectrical circuits and active matter.
Floquet topological insulators — generating and tuning topologically protected states with laser fields, from the 2011 mid-infrared bandgap proposal to its observation in graphene.
Quantum pumping — directed currents at zero bias through quantum interference, predicted with a single time-dependent parameter in 2005 and demonstrated experimentally in 2008.
Saser — the phonon laser — the electrical generation of coherent ultrasound in semiconductors, proposed in 2001 and first demonstrated in 2010.
For the complete record, see the publications page.
Research impact
Research for impact (not impact factor): We strive to do research that shapes new ideas and benefits the community, irrespective of where it is published. A few of our papers rank in the top 1% of all Physics papers published the same year. For example, PRB 97 121401 (2018) was, as of May 2026, the most cited of the 10,127 articles published in Physical Review B in 2018, and EPJST 227 1295 (2018) was the most cited paper in that journal (out of 361).
Two of our earlier papers on Floquet topological states made up half of the core highly cited papers in an emerging research front reported by Thomson Reuters (Periodically driven systems, 2017).
I have also been listed in Stanford University’s bibliometric study of the world’s most-cited scientists in every yearly edition from 2020 to 2024, and in the career-long lists of the 2023 and 2024 editions.
Join the group
Much of this record was built with students and postdocs asking better questions than mine. If these problems resonate, see Join Us and meet the team.