Plasmonics and Nano-Optics

This Working Group originates from the annual PLASMONICA workshop. The series was kickstarted in 2013 by a collective of young Italian physicists to provide a forum for researchers in nano-plasmonics – back then still a pioneering endeavor within the Italian landscape. After a decade, this community has thrived and vastly expanded its reach also internationally; its scope has correspondingly broadened to cover many active areas of nanophotonics, including nanoresonators, meta-optics, thermo- and magneto-plasmonics, ultrafast and nonlinear processes, chiral properties, and biological sensing.

Since 2015 PLASMONICA is affiliated to the Italian Society of Optics and Photonics (SIOF) as the Plasmonics and Nano-Optics Working Group. Nonetheless, its core mission remains the same: gathering the nanophotonics community in Italy – which is naturally spread over different disciplines such as physics, engineering, chemistry, and biology – as well as facilitating scientific collaborations, personnel exchange, dissemination events (seminars and workshops), and outreach initiatives. Another distinctive feature of this group is its pledge to cater to early-stage researchers, by encouraging their scientific maturation and providing a platform to showcase their research.

These values shape the two principal activities of the group, namely the organization of a yearly workshop and a residential school every two years. These in-person events are conducted in English, to foster the engagement with the wider international community.

If you are interested in the activities of this group, you are welcome to:

PLASMONICA Steering Committee elected for the term 2026–2028:

  • Nicoletta Granchi, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia e LENS, Università degli Studi di Firenze
  • Antonio Ferraro, Istituto di Nanotecnologia del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-NANOTEC), sede di Rende
  • Alessio Gabbani, Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa
  • Tommaso Giovannini, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata"
  • Valeria Nocerino, Dipartimento Ingegneria Elettrica e delle Tecnologie dell'Informazione, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II