Browsing by Author "Zaccaria, Remo Proietti"
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Item Controlling Light, Heat, and Vibrations in Plasmonics and Phononics(Wiley, 2020) Cunha, Joao; Guo, Tian-Long; Valle, Giuseppe Della; Koya, Alemayehu Nana; Zaccaria, Remo Proietti; Alabastri, AlessandroPlasmonic nanostructures have attracted considerable attention for their ability to couple with light and provide strong electromagnetic energy confinement at subwavelength dimensions. The absorbed portion of the captured electromagnetic energy can lead to significant heating of both the nanostructure and its surroundings, resulting in a rich set of nanoscale thermal processes that defines the subfield of thermoplasmonics with applications ranging from nanochemistry and nanobiology to optoelectronics. Recently, phononic nanostructures have started to attract attention as a platform for manipulation of phonons, enabling control over heat propagation and/or mechanical vibrations. The complex interaction phenomena between photons, electrons, and phonons require appropriate modelling strategies to design nanodevices that simultaneously explore and exploit the optical, thermal, and mechanical degrees of freedom. Examples of such devices are micro- and nanoscale opto-thermo-mechanical systems for sensing, imaging, energy conversion, and harvesting applications. Here, an overview of the fundamental theory and concepts crucial to the modelling of plasmo-phonon devices is provided. Particular attention is given to micro- and nanoscale modelling frameworks, highlighting their validity ranges and the experimental works that contributed to their validation and led to compelling applications. Finally, an open-ended outlook focused on emerging applications at the intersection between plasmonics and phononics is presented.Item Electrostatic polarization fields trigger glioblastoma stem cell differentiation(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2022) Cabada, Tamara Fernandez; Ruben, Massimo; Merhie, Amira El; Zaccaria, Remo Proietti; Alabastri, Alessandro; Petrini, Enrica Maria; Barberis, Andrea; Salerno, Marco; Crepaldi, Marco; Davis, Alexander; Ceseracciu, Luca; Catelani, Tiziano; Athanassiou, Athanassia; Pellegrino, Teresa; Cingolani, Roberto; Papadopoulou, Evie L.Over the last few years it has been understood that the interface between living cells and the underlying materials can be a powerful tool to manipulate cell functions. In this study, we explore the hypothesis that the electrical cell/material interface can regulate the differentiation of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs). Electrospun polymer fibres, either polyamide 66 or poly(lactic acid), with embedded graphene nanoplatelets (GnPs), have been fabricated as CSC scaffolds, providing both the 3D microenvironment and a suitable electrical environment favorable for CSCs adhesion, growth and differentiation. We have investigated the impact of these scaffolds on the morphological, immunostaining and electrophysiological properties of CSCs extracted from human glioblastoma multiform (GBM) tumor cell line. Our data provide evidence in favor of the ability of GnP-incorporating scaffolds to promote CSC differentiation to the glial phenotype. Numerical simulations support the hypothesis that the electrical interface promotes the hyperpolarization of the cell membrane potential, thus triggering the CSC differentiation. We propose that the electrical cell/material interface can regulate endogenous bioelectrical cues, through the membrane potential manipulation, resulting in the differentiation of CSCs. Material-induced differentiation of stem cells and particularly of CSCs, can open new horizons in tissue engineering and new approaches to cancer treatment, especially GBM.Item Hot carrier spatio-temporal inhomogeneities in ultrafast nanophotonics(IOP Publishing, 2022) Schirato, Andrea; Crotti, Giulia; Zaccaria, Remo Proietti; Alabastri, Alessandro; Valle, Giuseppe DellaLight-induced hot carriers in nanostructures and their corresponding optical nonlinearity have been extensively examined during the last decades. However, nonlinear optical effects dictated by the spatio-temporal evolution of out-of-equilibrium electrons at the nanoscale represent a much more recent research focus. Here we theoretically discuss the role of spatial inhomogeneities that energetic electrons feature across individual nanoantennas in metasurface configuration upon illumination with femtosecond laser pulses. As exemplary cases, we consider two-dimensional geometries of gold meta-atoms having either a high aspect ratio or a tapered cross-section and model their ultrafast optical response. A comparison with numerical results obtained either neglecting or accounting for spatial effects indicates that deep sub-wavelength spatio-temporal transients of carriers may have a significant impact on the dynamics of the all-optically modulated signal, with major quantitative corrections up to predicted changes in sign. Our results present hot-electron local inhomogeneities as an emerging subject with potentially relevant applications in various ultrafast nanophotonic configurations.