Full professor of condensed matter physics (theory)
Head of the Department of Physics

Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' di Cagliari
Cittadella Universitaria, I-09042 Monserrato (Ca), ITALY

Phone: +39 070 675 4871   -   Fax: +39 070 510 171
Email: luciano.colombo@dsf.unica.it
Website: www.dsf.unica.it/colombo

Novel nanomaterials for applications in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, energy production/harvesting (photovoltaics or co-generation for green electronics), nanomechanics, and medical applications are central to my research activity.
In particular, my current research interests are focused on theoretical and computational modeling of:

1. nanomaterials for energy production/harvesting (hybrid organic/inorganic systems for photovoltaics ;  SiGe bulk nanostructures for thermoelectric conversion) and for optimal thermal budget in ULSI devices (heat transport in graphene nanoribbons);
2. nanomaterials for structural applications (nonlinear elasticity of nanocomposite materials1), nano-electro-mechanical devices (elastic behavior of graphene), and flexible electronics;
3. polymers for biomedical applications (thermoelasticity of dielectric elastomers for actuators and artificial muscles2) and of biological interest (force-extention constitutive relation of chain polymers);
4. Si-based nanosystems for optoelectronics (quantum confinement in nanocrystalline silicon, microstructure evolution of Si-SiO₂ heterostructures).

I am as well interested in: (i) developing and applying computational multiscale methods for materials modeling like, e.g., the hierarchic or concurrent combination of atomistic and continuum pictures; (ii) the development of atomically-informed mesoscopic models.
Finally, I am engaged in developing new algorithms for large-scale atomistic simulations with improved numerical efficiency.

As for the assessment of the performance of scientists (i.e. use of bibliometric indices) I fully endorse the general statement of the European Physical Society.

Fisica dei semiconduttori
Nanoelettronica