Stefania DAgostino
Post Doc
Computational Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Lines
Nanotechnologies for Humans and Biosystems
Contacts
About
March 29th, 1982: Born in Copertino (LE), Italy.
Education and Training
- July 2001: Scientific Diploma at Liceo Scientifico “G. Banzi Bazoli”, in Lecce (100/100 cum Laude).
- July 29th, 2004: First-Level Degree in Physics (110/110 summa cum Laude) at the University of Salento with a dissertation on “One-Mode Solutions of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam System” (Advisors: Prof. Mario Leo and Prof. Rosario Antonio Leo).
- July 27th, 2006: Master Degree in Physics (110/110 summa cum Laude) at the University of Salento with a dissertation on "Ab initio Study of Methanethiol Adsorbed on the Cu(110) Metal Surface" (Advisors: Prof. Rosaria Rinaldi, Dr. Fabio Della Sala and Dr. Letizia Chiodo).
- November 29th, 2006 – March 12th, 2007: CNR-INFM Scholarship for graduated students at CRS NNL National Nanotechnology Laboratory in Lecce.
- March 13th, 2007 - October 28th, 2010: Ph.D. in Nanosciences-ISUFI, University of Salento (XXII Cycle) with a dissertation on “Theoretical Modelling of Plasmonic Nanosystems” (Tutor: Dott. Fabio Della Sala, Coordinator: Prof. Roberto Cingolani).
Research Activities
- April 15th, 2010 – July 14th, 2010: Research contract stipulated with the Research Fundation "Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia", Lecce, Italy.
- July 15th, 2010- June 30th, 2011: Research contract stipulated with the Institute of Nanosciences CNR-NANO on “Simulazione della Interazione Elettromagnetica tra Molecole e Nanoparticelle metalliche” (Public selection, N° NANO CO 002/ 2010 LE).
- March 1st, 2011 – June 30th, 2011: Visiting scientist at the Physics Department of the University of Pavia, in the “Photonics and Nanostructures” Group of Prof. Lucio Claudio Andreani.
- July 1st, 2011 – June 30th, 2013: Postdoc fellow at the Physics Department of the University of Pavia, in the “Photonics and Nanostructures” Group of Prof. Lucio Claudio Andreani, on the research program “Plasmonic nanostructures: radiation-matter interaction and Photovoltaics Applications”.
- July 1st, 2013 – June 30th, 2014: Postdoc position at the Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies – Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Lecce on the research program “Lightmatter interactions in semiconductor nanostructures” (BC: 68449).
- From July 1st, 2014 (Until July 1st, 2017): Post doctoral position at the Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies – Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Lecce in Computational Plasmonics (BC: 69446).
- May 1st, 2015 - August 31st, 2015: Guest Scientist within the Eleonore-Trefftz Programm at the Dresden University of Technology (TUD), Dresden, Germany.
Teaching Activities
- 2012 – 2013: Assistant Lecturer (Cultore della Materia) in FIS/03 in the Department of Physics of the University of Pavia.
- January 2015 – February 2015 : Lecturer of the Course “Photonics” (3 CFD) for the Ph.D. Students of “Fisica e Nanoscienze”, at the Department of Physics of the University of Salento.
- February 6th, 2013 – February 5th, 2014: Collaboration Contract with ISUFI (Istituto Superiore Universitario di Formazione Interdisciplinare) as Tutor for the Natural Sciences Area for the A.A. 2012/2013
- February 28th, 2014 - February 27th, 2015: Collaboration Contract with ISUFI (Istituto Superiore Universitario di Formazione Interdisciplinare) as Tutor for the Natural Sciences Area for the A.A. 2013/2014.
- April 14th, 2015 - February 13th, 2016: Collaboration Contract with ISUFI (Istituto Superiore Universitario di Formazione Interdisciplinare) as Tutor for the Natural Sciences Area for the A.A. 2014/2015.
- April 20th, 2016 – April 19th, 2017: Collaboration Contract with ISUFI (Istituto Superiore Universitario di Formazione Interdisciplinare) as Tutor of the three Areas (Natural, Human and Social Sciences).
- 2016 – 2018: Assistant Lecturer (Cultore della Materia) in SSD FIS/02 in the Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi”, University of Salento.
- December 5th, 2017: "Professore Abilitato Associato" for the Scientific Sector "Fisica Teorica della Materia" (02/B2).
Scientific Interests
Scientific Areas:
- Solid-state Physics, Nanophotonics and Plasmonics.
Topics of Interest:
- Theoretical analysis of electromagnetic interactions, in both weak and strong-coupling regimes, between point-like emitters and metallic nanoclusters or nanoparticles able to support localized surface plasmons (within Classical Electromagnetism and Quantum Mechanics schemes).
Major Research Activities
- Electromagnetic Modelling of metallic nanostructures in the framework of the Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA). Fundamental contributions to the development of the DDA code.
- Ab Initio calculations, in the scheme of Density Functional Theory (DFT), on hybrid SAM-metallic surface systems (methanethiol/Cu(110), methanethiolate/Au(111), biphenyl/Au(111) etc.).
- Analysis of the optical behaviour of electro-optocal devices (Organic Light Emitting Diodes - OLEDs) in the Chance-Prock-Silbey theory.
- Quantum Electrodynamics study of quantum effects as vacuum Rabi splitting and single photon emission in systems involving strong coupling interactions between Frenkel excitons and plasmons (plexcitons).
- Quantum Plasmonics and Ab Initio study, in the framework of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory, of the absorption spectra of sub-nanometer metallic nanoparticles.
Reviewing and Boards
- Peer-review activity for several International Journals (Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Optics Communications, etc.).
- 2011 – 2013: Editor of the Book “Handbook of Molecular Plasmonics”, published by Pan Stanford Publishing Pte Ltd. (http://www.panstanford.com/books/9789814303200.html)
- September 2014: Member of the Examination Committee for admission to the XXX Cicle of the Ph.D. in “Fisica e Nanoscienze” of the Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi”.
- From 2013 (in course): Member of the Board of the Ph.D. in “Fisica e Nanoscienze”, of the Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio De Giorgi”.
- January - December 2016: Lead Guest Editor of a Special Issue for The Journal of Nanomaterials on “Strong Coupling Interactions in Plasmonics: Computational and Experimental Aspects”.
- Member of the Local Organizing Committee of the International Conference MOLARMEET 2016 - “Supramolecular Assembly: towards Novel Functional Materials and Devices”
(www.molarnetworkshop.eu), 6th-10th September 2016 at MUST (Museo Storico della Città di Lecce), Lecce, Italy. - Member of the Local Organizing Committee of the fifth Edition of the International Workshop PLASMONICA 2017 (http://www.plasmonica.it/2017), 5th-7th July 2017 at Convitto Palmieri, Lecce, Italy.
- Local Organizer of the International Conference “Trends in Nanotechnology” to be held from 3rd to 7th September 2018 in Lecce, Italy.
Interests
Molecular Plasmonics Nanophotonics Solid State PhysicsProjects
- Member of the Computational Project CINECA-2007 (150.000 CPU hours), Title: Ab initio electronic properties of interfaces in hetero nanostructures.
- Member of the Computational Project CINECA-2008 (80.000 CPU hours), Title: Electromagnetic modeling of fluorescence near metal nanostructures.
- Member of the staff group of DEDOM (Development of Density functional theory methods for Organic Metal Interaction) FP7-Ideas, ERC Starting Grant, July 2008- June 2013.
- Co-developer (together with Dr. Fabio Della Sala) of the parallel code written in Fortran able to use the Discrete Dipole Aprroximation (DDA) dipoles of a metallic target to compute the near field in an arbitrary set of points. The code is available online at http://adda. googlecode.com/svn/trunk/misc/near_field/nearfield_manual.txt.
- Member of the Computational Project CINECA ISCRA Class C – 2011 (20.000 CPU hours), N. HP10C1ZQTO, Title: Modelling Of Plasmons Emitters Electromagnetic Interactions (MOPEEI).
- Supervisor of the Computational Project CINECA ISCRA Class C – 2012 (50.000 CPU hours), N. HP10CH36MI, Title: Quantum Effects and Strong Coupling Regime In Plasmonics (QUASCIP).
- Supervisor of the Computational Project CINECA ISCRA Class C – 2016 (80.000 CPU hours), N. HP10CERVYG, Title: Nonlocal Effects and Electron Tunneling In Plasmonics (NEETIP).
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
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S. D’Agostino, L. Chiodo, F. Della Sala, R. Cingolani and R. Rinaldi, Ab Initio Structural and Electronic Analysis of CH3SH Self-Assembled on a Cu(110) Substrate, Phys. Rev. B, 75, 195444 (2007).
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S. D’Agostino and F. Della Sala, Electromagnetic Modelling of the Optical Behaviour of Silver Nanospheres on Dielectric Substrates: the Role of a Silver Buffer Layer, Superlattice & Microstructures, 47, 55 (2010)
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S. D’Agostino, P. P. Pompa, R. Chiuri, R. J. Phaneuf, D. G. Britti, R. Rinaldi, R. Cingolani, and F. Della Sala, Enhanced Fluorescente by Metal Nanospheres on Metal Substrates, Opt. Lett., 34, 2381 (2009). Selected for “the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology”.
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M. Piacenza, S. D’Agostino, E. Fabiano and F. Della Sala, Ab initio Depolarization in Self-Assembled Molecular Monolayers: Beyond Conventional Density Functional Theory, Phys. Rev. B, 80, 153101 (2009). Selected for “the Virtual Journals in Science & Technolgy”.
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E. Fabiano, M. Piacenza, S. D’Agostino and F. Della Sala, Towards an Accurate Description of the Electronic Properties of the Biphenylthiol/gold Interface: The Role of Exact Exchange, J. Chem. Phys., 131, 234101 (2009).
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F. Della Sala, E. Fabiano, S. Laricchia, S. D’Agostino and M. Piacenza, The Role of Exact-Exchange in the Theoretical Description of Organic-Metal Interfaces, Int. J. Quantum Chem., 110, 2162 (2010).
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G. Cheng, M. Mazzeo, S. D’Agostino, F. Della Sala, S. Carallo, and G. Gigli, Pure White Hybrid Light-Emitting Device with Color Rendering Index Higher than 90, Opt. Lett., 35, 616 (2010).
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S. D’Agostino and F. Della Sala, Active Role of Oxide Layers on the Polarization of Plasmonic Nanostructures, ACS Nano, 4, 4117 (2010).
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M. Mazzeo, F. Della Sala, F. Mariano, G. Melcarne, S. D’Agostino, Y. Duan, R. Cingolani and G. Gigli, Shaping White Light Through Electroluminescent Fully Organic Coupled Microcavities, Adv. Mater., 22, 4696 (2010).
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Stefania D'Agostino and Fabio Della Sala, Silver Nanourchins in Plasmonics: Theoretical Investigation on the Optical Properties of the Branches, J. Phys. Chem. C., 115, 11934 (2011).
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F. Alpeggiani, S. D'Agostino, and L. C. Andreani, Surface Plasmons and Strong Light-Matter Coupling in Metallic Nanoshells, Phys. Rev. B, 86, 035421 (2012).
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S. D’Agostino, F. Della Sala and L. C. Andreani, Dipole Decay Rates Engineering via Silver Nanocones, Plasmonics, 8, 1079 (2013).
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S. D’Agostino, F. Della Sala and L. C. Andreani, Dipole-Excited Surface Plasmons in Metallic Nanoparticles: an Engineering of Decay Dynamics within the Discrete Dipole Approximation, Phys. Rev. B 87, 205413 (2013).
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S. D’Agostino, F. Della Sala and L. C. Andreani, Radiative Coupling of High-order Plasmonic Modes with Far-Field, Photonics and Nanostructures - Fundamentals and Applications, 11, 4, 335 (2013).
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Y. Xie, L. Carbone, C. Nobile, V. Grillo, S.
D'Agostino, F. Della Sala, C. Giannini, D. Altamura, C. Oelsner, K. Carola and D. Cozzoli, Metallic-like Stoichiometric Copper Sulfide Nanocrystals: Phase
and Shape Selective Synthesis, Near-Infrared Surface Plasmon Resonance
Properties and Their Modeling, ACS Nano, 7, 7352 (2013).
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S. D’Agostino, F. Alpeggiani and L. C. Andreani, Strong Coupling Between a Dipole Emitter and Localized Plasmons: Enhancement by Sharp Silver Tips, Opt. Expr., 21, 27602 (2013).
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L. Persano, A. Camposeo, P. Del Carro, V. Fasano, M. Moffa, R. Manco, S. D’Agostino, and D. Pisignano, Distributed Feedback Imprinted Electrospun Fiber Lasers, Advanced Materials, 26(38), 6542 (2014).
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D. Ballarini, M. De Giorgi, S. Gambino, G. Lerario, M. Mazzeo, A. Genco, G. Accorsi, C. Giansante, S. Colella, S. D'Agostino, P. Cazzato, D. Sanvitto and G. Gigli, Polariton-Induced Enhanced Emission from an Organic Dye Under the Strong Coupling Regime, Advanced Optical Materials, 2-11, 1076 (2014).
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S. D’Agostino, F. Della Sala and L. C. Andreani, Modifications of Dipole Decay Dynamics by Optical Antennas: a Study within the Discrete Dipole Approximation, Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, 5-11, 1 (2015). Invited Review Article.
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F. Todisco, S. D'Agostino, M. Esposito, A. I. F. Dominguez, M. De Giorgi, D. Ballarini, L. Dominici, I. Tarantini, M. Cuscunà, F. Della Sala, G. Gigli, and D. Sanvitto, Exciton–Plasmon Coupling Enhancement via Metal Oxidation, ACS Nano 9-10, 9691 (2015).
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F. Alpeggiani, S. D’Agostino, D. Sanvitto and D. Gerace, Plasmon Blockade from Metallic Nanodimers, Scientific Reports, 6, 34772 (2016).
Conference Proceedings
- S. D’Agostino, F. Della Sala and L. C. Andreani, Dipole Decay Rates Engineering via Metallic Nanosystems, AIP Conf. Proc., 1475, 47 (2012).
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F. Alpeggiani, S. D’Agostino and L. C. Andreani, Surface Plasmons and Strong Light-Matter Coupling in Metallic Nanostructures, 16th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), IEEE Conference Publications, 14516812, 1 (2014).
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S. D’Agostino, F. Alpeggiani and L. C. Andreani, Strong Coupling between Localized Surface Plasmons and Point-like Emitters within the Classical Scheme of the Discrete Dipole Approximation, 8th International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics - Metamaterials 2014, accepted by IEEE Conference Publications (2014).
IIT Publications
- 2017
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Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB) Method as a New Direction for Computational Plasmonics
IEEE 2017 - Metamaterials'2017 Conference -
Density Functional Tight Binding Method for Metal-Molecule Interactions
TNT2017 Conference - Trends in Nanotechnology Conference, June 5th -9th 2017, Dresden, Germany -
Plasmonic dimers analysis within Density Functional Tight Binding method
Plasmonica 2017, 5th-7th July, Lecce, Italy. -
Plasmonic Nonlocal Response Effects on Dipole Decay Dynamics in the Weak and Strong-Coupling Regimes
IEEE 2017 - Metamaterials'2017 Conference -
DOI
Plasmonic Nonlocal Response Effects on Dipole Decay Dynamics in the Weak- and Strong-Coupling Regimes
Journal of Physical Chemistry C, vol. 121, (no. 40), pp. 22361-22368 - 2016
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Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB) Method for Plasmonics: Advantages and Limits. [BEST-POSTER AWARD]
PLASMONICA 2016, September 14th – 16th 2016, Genova, Italy. -
DOI
Visible quantum plasmonics from metallic nanodimers
Scientific Reports, vol. 6 - 2015
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DOI
Exciton-Plasmon Coupling Enhancement via Metal Oxidation
ACS Nano, vol. 9, (no. 10), pp. 9691-9699 -
DOI
Perturbations of dipole decay dynamics induced by plasmonic nano-antennas - a study within the discrete dipole approximation
Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, vol. 5, (no. 1), pp. 1-13 - 2014
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DOI
Distributed feedback imprinted electrospun fiber lasers
Advanced Materials, vol. 26, (no. 38), pp. 6542-6547 -
DOI
Polariton-Induced Enhanced Emission from an Organic Dye under the Strong Coupling Regime
Advanced Optical Materials, vol. 2, (no. 11), pp. 1076-1081 -
Strong Coupling between Localized Surface Plasmons and Point-Like Emitters within the Classical Scheme of the Discrete Dipole Approximation
Metamaterials' 2014, The 8th International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics, August 25th - 30th, 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark. -
DOI
Surface plasmons and strong light-matter coupling in metallic nanostructures
International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks - 2013
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DOI
Dipole Decay Rates Engineering via Silver Nanocones
Plasmonics, vol. 8, (no. 2), pp. 1079-1086 -
DOI
Dipole-excited surface plasmons in metallic nanoparticles: Engineering decay dynamics within the discrete-dipole approximation
Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, vol. 87, (no. 20) -
Handbook of Molecular Plasmonics
Handbook of Molecular Plasmonics, pp. 1-480, Publisher: Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. -
DOI
Metallic-like stoichiometric copper sulfide nanocrystals: Phase- and shape-selective synthesis, near-infrared surface plasmon resonance properties, and their modeling
ACS Nano, vol. 7, (no. 8), pp. 7352-7369 -
Preface
Handbook of Molecular Plasmonics, pp. xiii-xv, Publisher: Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. -
DOI
Radiative coupling of high-order plasmonic modes with far-field
Photonics and Nanostructures - Fundamentals and Applications, vol. 11, (no. 4), pp. 335-344 -
Size and shape dependence of localized surface plasmon resonances
Handbook of Molecular Plasmonics, pp. 137-174, Publisher: Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. -
DOI
Strong coupling between a dipole emitter and localized plasmons: Enhancement by sharp silver tips
Optics Express, vol. 21, (no. 23), pp. 27602-27610 - 2012
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DOI
Dipole decay rates engineering via metallic nanosystems
AIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 1475, pp. 47-49 -
DOI
Surface plasmons and strong light-matter coupling in metallic nanoshells
Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, vol. 86, (no. 3) - 2010
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DOI
Active role of oxide layers on the polarization of plasmonic nanostructures
ACS Nano, vol. 4, (no. 7), pp. 4117-4125 -
DOI
Electromagnetic modelling of the optical behaviour of silver nanospheres on dielectric substrates: The role of a silver buffer layer
Superlattices and Microstructures, vol. 47, (no. 1), pp. 55-59 -
DOI
Pure white hybrid light-emitting device with color rendering index higher than 90
Optics Letters, vol. 35, (no. 5), pp. 616-618 -
DOI
Shaping white light through electroluminescent fully organic coupled microcavities
Advanced Materials, vol. 22, (no. 42), pp. 4696-4700 -
DOI
The role of exact-exchange in the theoretical description of organic-metal interfaces
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, vol. 110, (no. 12), pp. 2162-2171 - 2009
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DOI
Ab initio depolarization in self-assembled molecular monolayers: Beyond conventional density-functional theory
Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, vol. 80, (no. 15) -
DOI
Enhanced fluorescence by metal nanospheres on metal substrates
Optics Letters, vol. 34, (no. 15), pp. 2381-2383 -
DOI
Towards an accurate description of the electronic properties of the biphenylthiol/gold interface: The role of exact exchange
Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 131, (no. 23) - 2007
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DOI
Ab initio structural and electronic analysis of C H3 SH self-assembled on a Cu(110) substrate
Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, vol. 75, (no. 19)
Awards
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CBN (Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies)-IIT Best Paper Award 2015 for the publication “Exciton–Plasmon Coupling Enhancement via Metal Oxidation” ACS Nano, 2015, 9 (10), pp 9691–9699. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b04974. Link at the website https://talk.iit.it.
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Best Poster Award for the work “Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB) Method for Plasmonics: Advantages and Limits”, presented at the Italian Workshop Plasmonica 2016, September 14th -16th 2016, Genoa, Italy.
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Idoneity for the CNR Concourse Bando n. 368.21 RIC – Area Strategica – “Ottica, Fotonica, Tecnologie Atomiche e Quantistiche” (2016).