Alberto Comin

Bio

Alberto Comin is team leader in the Department of Nanophysics at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). He studied condensed matter physics and ultrafast optics at University of Pavia and University of Milan. He worked at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy), Sincrotrone Trieste (Italy) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA). He contributed to pioneering a new experimental technique for measuring the magnetization dynamics with picosecond time resolution and chemical sensitivity. His studies elucidated the role of band structure in determining the de-magnetization speed in Heusler alloys, and contributed to solve a long standing dispute over the nature of ultrafast magnetization dynamics in solids. He was also the first to measure the femtosecond demagnetization in cobalt films, and to demonstrate simultaneous ultrafast modulation of elastic and magnetic dynamics in ordered array of permalloy nano-disks. He currently investigates ultrafast dynamics in plasmonic and magnetic nanocrystal hetero-structures. His most recent studies clarified the role of morphology and interfaces in determining the speed of the electron relaxation in gold/iron oxide hetero-dimers, and shed light on the non-linear processes which govern the ultrafast dynamics of Cu_2-xSe nanocrystals.