Photonic Materials

Francesco Simoni's professional site

CV

Prof. Francesco Simoni

  • Guest Researcher at Polytechnic University of Marche – Ancona, Italy (as Retired Full Professor)
  • Associated Researcher at Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems – CNR – Pozzuoli, Italy

Academic appointments

  • 1994 – 2019 – Full Professor of Experimental Physics at the Faculty of Engineering, Polytechnic University of Marche – Ancona. Italy
  • May 2018 – Visiting Professor, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan
  • March-May 1996 – Visiting Professor, Université d’Artois, Lens, France
  • 1986-1994 – Associate Professor of General Physics at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Naples, Federico II
  • 1983-1986 – Associate Professor of Optics at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Calabria
  • Summer 1983 – Visiting Scientist at Department of Physics, North State University, Denton
  • Summer 1982 – Visiting Scientist at Department of Physics, North State University, Denton
  • 1980-81 – Visiting scientist at the Center for Laser Studies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
  • 1977-1983 – Fixed Term Professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Calabria
  • 1975 –1977 – Post Doc at Institute of Physics, University of Rome “La Sapienza”
  • 1973 – Degree “Laurea” in Physics at University of Rome “La Sapienza”

AWARDS

  • Scholarship of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italian Science Academy) – 1974
  • Fellow of the Optical Society of America – 2009

Areas of professional specialization:

  • Nonlinear Optics of Liquid Crystals
  • Soft Materials for Optical Storage and Processing
  • Holographic Technology
  • Plastic Microlasers
  • Optical Manipulation
  • Optofluidics
  • Smart Materials
  • Optical Devices


SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY (Summary)

Nonlinear optics in condensed matter, electro-optical and nonlinear optical properties of liquid crystals and polymers have been the main topics of the scientific activity during a few decades. Most recent activity includes also the study of organic materials for “optical storage” and “optical processing”; development holographic technologies for “optical patterning”; study optical manipulation in anisotropic environment and light-induced actuation; development of advanced optofluidic devices and microlasers. He has been responsible for research projects funded by MIUR, INFM, ASI, EU, INTAS, EOARD.

PUBLICATIONS

He is author of over 200 articles on peer reviewed international journals and books, co-inventor of 5 patents (2 international ones), over 25 papers in Proceedings of International Conferences and one book for undergraduate students.

He is single author of the books:

 “Nonlinear Optical Properties of Liquid Crystals and Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals” – World Scientific, Singapore 1997 – (citations > 400)

“Introductory Matter Physics” – World Scientific, Singapore 2018

INVITED LECTURES

F.Simoni gave over 50 invited lectures, including plenary and keynote lectures, at International Conferences, and lectures and seminars at several universities and research institutions in Europe, Asia and USA.

MANAGING ACTIVITY

  • Member of the Board of Directors of “Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia” (INFM – National Institute for Matter Physics) as Director of the Research Unit of Ancona – 1998-2004
  • President of the Italian Liquid Crystal Society – 1998-2002
  • Representative of Italy in the Management Committee of the EU-COST P8 Action “Materials and Systems for Optical Data Storage and Processing” – European Research Network involving groups from 16 countries – 2002-2006,
  • Chair of the EU-COST MP0604 Action “Optical Micro-Manipulation by Nonlinear Nanophotonics” – European Research Network involving groups from 18 countries – 2007-2011,
  • Representative of Italy in the Management Committee of the EU-COST MP1205 Action “Advances in Optofluidics: Integration of Optical Control and Photonics with Microfluidics”- European Research Network involving groups from 21 countries – 2012-2016
  • Member of Board of Directors of the Interuniversity National Consortium for Physical Sciences of Matter – CNISM gathering 38 Italian Universities serving (since 2006) as Vice-President – 2005-2011
  • Member of the Board of Administrators (Co-founder) of the Spin-Off Company HEOS s.r.l. “Highly Engineered Optical Solution” – 2009-2016 – HEOS Photonics activity encompasses the development of novel optical systems as well as custom services and consulting for companies and laboratories. The core activity concerns the development of optical sensors for biomedical applications, chemical and mechanical sensing, industrial automation

EXPERT COMMITTEES

      F. Simoni has been and is currently involved as expert reviewer of scientific projects for

  • MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research),
  • EU (European Union),
  • ESF (European Science Foundation),
  • ESA (European Space Agency),
  • SFI (Science Foundation Ireland),
  • CERG (Research Grant Hong Kong),
  • FWF (Austrian Science Fund),
  • ANR (Agence Nationale Recherche, France)
  • FCT (Fundacao para Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal)
  • DNRF (Danish National Research Foundation)
  • NCRD (National Centre for Research and Development in Poland)
  • NKFIH (National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary)
  • DFG (German Research Foundation)
  • NSERC (Government of Canada)

F. Simoni acted as expert in recruitment committees for several Universities and CNR (Italian National Research Council)

Member of Scientific Committees of International Conferences

  • International Topical Meeting on Optics of Liquid Crystals – OLC : in the scientific committee since the first meeting in 1986 to present and Chairman of OLC’90
  • SPIE Meeting on Optics & Photonics, in the Scientific Committee of Liquid Crystal Conference since 1997 to present
  • Chairman of a Special Symposium on Optical Storage and Processing at IEEE-LEOS Annual Meeting 2005
  • Director of the International School “Nonlinear Photonics and Optical Physics”, Capri, 1992
  • Permanent Program Co-Chair of the Mediterranean Workshop and Topical meeting “Novel Optical Materials and Applications” (NOMA) since the first in 1995 to present.
  • International Liquid Crystal Conference: 14th ILCC92, 15th ILCC94, 16th ILCC96, 17th ILCC98, 18th ILCC2000, 19th ILCC2002
  • CLEO Europe 2003, 2005
  • 1st Meeting of the European Optical Society 2006
  • Chair of the Special Session on “Advanced Optofluidics” at Conference PIERS (Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium) in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Activity as scientific editor

  • Regional Editor of the International Journal: Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, published by Taylor and Francis, New York, since 1990-present
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the International Open Access Journal: Crystals, published by MDPI
  • Past Editor in Chief of the International Open Access Journal: Optical Data Processing and Storage, published by De Gruyter, Berlin, New York, Peking – 2015-2019
  • Past Member of the International Advisory Board of Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics and Materials, published by World Scientific, Singapore
  • Co-editor of the following books:
  • I.C.Khoo and F.Simoni Eds. “Physics of Liquid Crystalline Materials”, Gordon and Breach, New York 1991
  • I.C.Khoo, J.F.Lam and F.Simoni “Nonlinear Optics and Optical Physics” , World Scientific , Singapore 1993
  • I.C.Khoo, F.Simoni and C.Umeton “Novel Optical Materials and Applications”, Wiley, New York 1997
  • Co-editor of special issues of the following international journals:
  • Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics and Materials (2 issues)
  • Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals (7 issues)
  • Journal of Optics A – Pure and Applied Optics (1 issue)

Reviewer for the following international journals:

ACS Sensors, Advanced Materials, Advanced Optical Materials, Applied Physics Letters, Applied Optics, Chinese Optics Letters, Crystals, European Physics Letters, Journal of Biophotonics, Journal of Applied Physics, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Journal of Molecular Liquids, Journal of the Optical Society of America B, Journal of Optical Materials, Journal of Optics A, Journal of Physics D : Applied Physics, Journal of Polymer Engineering, Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Laser & Photonics Reviews, Liquid Crystals, Measurement Science & Technology,  Molecular Crystals and liquid Crystals, Membranes, Nature Photonics, NPG Asia Materials, Optical Data Processing and Storage, Optics Communications, Opto-Electronic Review, Optical Engineering, Optics Express, Optical Materials Express, Optics Letters, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Physics and Chemistry of Liquids,  Physics Letters A, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review E, Photonics Technology Letters, RSC Advances, Scientific Reports, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

SELECTED PAPERS

20 MOST CITED PAPERS

  1. J.C. Diels, J.J. Fontaine, I.C.Mc Michael and F. Simoni – Control and measurement of ultrashort pulse shape (in amplitude and phase) with femtosecond accuracy – APPLIED OPTICS 24, 1270 (1985)
  2. F. Simoni and O. Francescangeli – Effects of light on molecular orientation of liquid crystals – INVITED PAPER on JOURNAL of PHYSICS : Condens. Matter  11, R439 (1999)
  3. I.C. Khoo, M.-Y. Shih, M.V. Wood, B.D. Guenther, P.H. Chen, F. Simoni, S. Slussarenko, O. Francescangeli, L. Lucchetti – Dye-Doped Photorefractive Liquid Crystals for Dynamic and Storage Holographic Grating Formation and Spatial Light Modulation – Proceedings of the IEEE, 87, 1897 (1999)
  4. D.E. Lucchetta, R. Karapinar, A. Manni and F. Simoni – Phase-only modulation by nanosized polymer dispersed liquid crystals – JOURNAL of APPLIED PHYSICS  91, 6060 (2002)
  5. F. Simoni, O. Francescangeli, Y. Reznikov and S. Slussarenko – Dye-doped liquid crystals as high resolution recording media – OPTICS LETTERS 22, 549 (1997)
  6. F. Simoni, L. Lucchetti, D.E. Lucchetta and O. Francescangeli – On the origin of the huge nonlinear response of dye-doped liquid crystals – OPTICS EXPRESS, 9, 85 (2001)
  7. O. Francescangeli, S. Slussarenko, F. Simoni, D. Andrienko, V. Reshetnyak, Yu. Reznikov – Light-induced surface sliding of the nematic director in liquid crystals – PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 82, 1855 (1999)
  8. L. Lucchetti, M. Di Fabrizio, O. Francescangeli, and F. Simoni – Colossal optical nonlinearity in dye-doped liquid crystals – OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 233, 417 (2004)
  9. E. Ouskova, Yu. Reznikov, S.V. Shiyanovskii, L. Su, J.L. West, O. Francescangeli, F. Simoni – Photoorientation of Liquid Crystals due to Light Induced Desorption/Adsorption of Dye Molecules on Aligning Surface – PHYSICAL REVIEW E 64, 051709 (2001)
  10. S. Slussarenko, O. Francescangeli, Y. Reznikov and F. Simoni – High resolution polarization gratings in liquid crystals – APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 71, 3613 (1997)
  11. F. Basile, F. Bloisi, L. Vicari and F. Simoni – Optical phase shift of polymer dispersed liquid crystals – PHYSICAL REVIEW E 48, 432 (1993)
  12. A. Piccardi, G. Assanto, L. Lucchetti, F. Simoni, – All-optical steering of soliton waveguides in dye-doped liquid crystals – APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 93,171104 (2008).
  13. D. E. Lucchetta, L. Criante, O. Francescangeli and F. Simoni – Light amplification by dye-doped holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals – APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 84, 4893 (2004)
  14. G. Cipparrone, V. Carbone, C. Versace, C. Umeton, R. Bartolino and F.Simoni – Optically induced chaotic behavior in nematic liquid crystals – PHYSICAL REVIEW E 47, 3741 (1993)
  15. F. Simoni, G. Cipparrone, A. Mazzulla, P. Pagliusi – Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals: effects of photorefractivity and local heating on holographic recording – CHEMICAL PHYSICS  245, 429 (1999)
  16. F. Bloisi, L. Vicari, F. Simoni, G. Cipparrone and C. Umeton – Self phase modulation in nematic liquid crystal films: detailed measurements and theoretical calculations – JOURNAL of the OPTICAL SOCIETY of AMERICA B5, 2462 (1988)
  17. E. Ouskova, D.Fedorenko,Yu. Reznikov, S.V. Shiyanovskii, L. Su, J.L. West, J.L.Kuksenok, O. Francescangeli, F. Simoni – Hidden Photoalignment of Liquid Crystals in the isotropic phase – PHYSICAL REVIEW E 63, 021701 (2001)
  18. G. Cipparrone, A. Mazzulla and F. Simoni – Orientational gratings in dye-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystals induced by the photorefractive effect – OPTICS LETTERS 23, 1505 (1998)
  19. D.E. Lucchetta, L. Criante and F. Simoni – Optical characterization of polymer dispersed liquid crystals for holographic recording – JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS  93, 9669 (2003)
  20. G. Cipparrone, A. Mazzulla, F.P. Nicoletta, L. Lucchetti and F. Simoni – Holographic grating formation in dye doped polymer dispersed liquid crystals – OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 150, 297 (1998)

SELECTED RECENT PAPERS

  • F.Simoni, L.Lucchetti – Colossal nonlinear optical response of liquid crystals – JOUR. MOLECULAR LIQUIDS 267, 67 (2018)
  • S.Bonfadini, F.Ciciulla, L.Criante, A.Zaltron, F.Simoni, V.Reshetnyal, L.Lucchetti – Optofluidic platform using liquid crystals in lithium niobate microchannel – SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 9, 1062 (2019)
  • L.Lucchetta, R.Castagna, F.Simoni – Light-actuated contactless macro motors exploiting Bénard–Marangoni convection – OPTICS EXPRESS 27, 13574 (2019)
  • G. Nava, F. Ciciulla, O. S. Iadlovska, O. D. Lavrentovich, F. Simoni, L. Lucchetti – Pitch tuning induced by optical torque in heliconical cholesteric liquid crystals – PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH 1, 033215 (2019)
  • R. Castagna, M. Rippa, F. Simoni, F. Villani, G. Nenna and L. Petti –Plasmonic Photomobile Polymer Films – CRYSTALS 10, 660 (2020)
  • F. Simoni – Nonlinear optical propagation near the Bragg resonance in heliconical cholesteric liquid crystals – OPTICS LETTERS 45, 6510 (2020)
  • G. Nava, F. Ciciulla, F. Simoni,O. S. Iadlovska, O. D. Lavrentovich, L. Lucchetti – Heliconical cholesteric liquid crystals as electrically tunable optical filters in notch and bandpass configurations – LIQUID CRYSTALS doi.org/10.1080/02678292.2021.1884911 (2021)
  • F. Ciciulla, A.Zaltron, R.Zamboni, C.Sada, F. Simoni,V.Reshetnyak, L. Lucchetti Optofluidic Platform Based on Liquid Crystals in X-Cut Lithium Niobate: Thresholdless All-Optical Response – CRYSTALS 11, 908 (2021)
  • L.Lucchetta, F.Simoni, N.Sheremet, V.Reshetnyak, R.Castagna, Shape-driven optofluidic rotational actuation – EUR. PHYS. J. PLUS 136, 445 (2021)
  • D. Sagnelli, M.Calabrese, O.Kaczmarczyk, M.Rippa, A.Vestri, V.Marchesano, K.Kortsen, V.Cuzzucoli Crucitti, F. Villani, F.Loffredo, C.Borriello, G.Nenna, M.Cocca, V.Ambrogi, K.Matczyszyn, F.Simoni, L.Petti – Photo-responsivity improvement of photo-mobile polymers actuators based on a novel azobenzene monomers and ZnO nanoparticles network – NANOMATERIALS (2021) in press
  • A. Gevorgyan, F.Simoni – Onset of Optical Instabilities in the Nonlinear Optical Transmission of Heliconical Cholesteric Liquid Crystals – PHOTONICS 9, 139 (2022)
  • G. Nava, R. Barboza, F. Simoni, O. Iadlovska, O.D.Lavrentovich, L.Lucchetti – Optical control of light polarization in heliconical cholesteric liquid crystals – OPTICS LETTERS 47, 2967 (2022)
  • A. Gevorgyan, F.Simoni – Light-Induced Self-Oscillations and Spoiling of the Bragg Resonance Due to Nonlinear Optical Propagation in Heliconical Cholesteric Liquid Crystals – PHOTONICS 9, 881 (2022)