Prof. Dr. Antonio Calà Lesina

The research group led by Prof. Calà Lesina specializes in understanding light-matter interactions in nanostructured materials, such as dielectric and plasmonic metasurfaces, metamaterials, photonic crystals and integrated meta-waveguides, as well as designing novel nanophotonic devices operating in the infrared, visible and extreme ultraviolet. Their expertise includes

• implementing finite difference numerical methods in combination with high-performance computing for large-scale simulations,
• developing topology optimization algorithms for the inverse design of dielectric and plasmonic nanostructured systems,
• modelling complex optical material properties, including dispersion, nonlinearity, anisotropy, and time-varying media, 
• employing multipole decomposition to gain insight on scattering and extinction from nanostructures,
• exploiting strategies for optical tunability (e.g., liquid crystals, conductive oxides, and phase change materials) to achieve reprogrammable optical circuits on a chip, and
• leveraging computational techniques to design non-intuitive components for integrated optics and quantum information processing.

The group also collaborates closely with experimental teams that use state-of-the-art fabrication tools, such as two-photon polymerization and electron beam lithography, by providing design guidance and simulations to support the interpretation of the measurements. Applications of this research include tunable phase/amplitude modulators for neuromorphic computing, structuring of extreme ultraviolet radiation for advanced lithography, and engineering more efficient, multi-functional and cost-effective free-form optical components.