DiaTHEMA Lab

 

Daniele M. Trucchi  -

Marco Girolami  -

Alessandro Bellucci  -

Valerio Serpente  -

Matteo Mastellone  -

Eleonora Bolli -

Veronica Valentini  -

Fabrizio Pallotta -

Riccardo Polini (Uni Roma2) - Associato ISM

Massimo Adriani (CNR) - Tecnico visitatore

Stefano Salvatori (UniCusano) - Associato ISM

Sara Pettinato (UniCusano) - Associato ISM

 

Rome - Monterotondo

 

Research Activities

Established in 2010 as DiaC2 Lab and successively evolved into DiaTHEMA (Diamond, Thermal & Harsh Environment Materials & Applications), the DiaTHEMA Lab focuses the R&D activity on the development of advanced thin-film materials and related prototypes for demonstrating innovative devices for applications especially in harsh environments. Specifically, the main present activities are dedicated to the development of energy converters operating at high-temperatures for solar concentrating systems, ultra-high temperature thermal energy converters, spectrometers for fast neutrons able to monitor nuclear fusion reactors, dosimeters for radiation therapy, quantum integrated optoelectronic platforms with high stability for high power applications. The DiaTHEMA lab coveys a more than decennial experience on the development of synthetic diamond technology, that has allowed, over the years, to extend the activities towards the production of highly innovative thin-film materials such as borides, carbides, fluorides, oxides, etc. which have been applied in the recent projects that DiaTHEMA Lab is developing.

Main skills

• Capability of deposition and engineering of thin-films
• Expertise in the characterization of electrical, electronic, and photo-electronic properties of materials
• Expertise in the development of electronic devices and prototypes for harsh environments (e.g. high temperature, irradiation of high-energy radiation and particles, chemically aggressive)
• Conceive and development of new devices based on novel fundamental electronic and/or photonic principles.

Research topics

• High temperature materials and devices for concentrated solar power conversion

D. M. Trucchi, A. Bellucci, M. Girolami, P. Calvani, E. Cappelli, S. Orlando, R. Polini, L. Silvestroni, D. Sciti and A. Kribus
Solar Thermionic-Thermoelectric Generator (ST2G): concept, material and prototype demonstration
Advanced Energy Materials 8, 32 (2018) 1802310

 

 

P. Calvani, A. Bellucci, M. Girolami, S. Orlando, V. Valentini, R. Polini, and D. M. Trucchi
Black Diamond for Solar Energy Conversion
Carbon 105 (2016) 401-407

 

• High- and ultra-high-temperature materials and devices for thermal energy conversion

A. Bellucci, M. Mastellone, V. Serpente, M. Girolami, S. Kaciulis, A. Mezzi, D. M. Trucchi, E. Antolín, J. Villa, P. G. Linares, A. Martí and A. Datas
Photovoltaic Anodes for Enhanced Thermionic Energy Conversion
AACS Energy Lett. 5 (2020) 1364-1370

 

 

A.Bellucci, M.Mastellone, M.Girolami, S.Orlando, L.Medici, A.Mezzi, S.Kaciulis, R.Polinia and D.M.Trucchi
ZnSb-based thin films prepared by ns-PLD for thermoelectric applications
Appl. Surf. Sci. 418 (2017) 589-593

 

• Detectors for Ionizing radiation and neutron based on CVD diamond

C. Cazzaniga, M. Nocente, M. Rebai, M. Tardocchi, P. Calvani, G. Croci, L. Giacomelli, M. Girolami, E. Griesmayer, G. Grosso, M. Pillon, D. M. Trucchi, and G. Gorini
A diamond based neutron spectrometer for diagnostics of deuterium-tritium fusion plasmas
Rev. Sci. Instr. 85 (2014) 11E101

 

 

M. Girolami, A. Bellucci, M. Mastellone, V. Serpente and D.M. Trucchi
Reproducibility analysis of diamond pixel detectors for large ionizing radiation fields
Optical Materials 91(2019) 292-295

 

• Defect-engineering of wide-bandgap semiconductors

M. Mastellone, A. Bellucci, M. Girolami, R. M. Montereali, S. Orlando, R. Polini, V. Serpente, E. Sani, V. Valentini; M. A. Vincenti and D. M. Trucchi
Enhanced selective solar absorption of surface nanotextured semi-insulating 6H-SiC
Optical Materials x (2020) xxxxxx

 

 

M. Girolami, A. Bellucci, M. Mastellone, S. Orlando, V. Valentini, R.M. Montereali, M.A. Vincenti, R. Polini and D.M. Trucchi
Optical characterization of double-nanotextured black diamond films
Carbon 138 (2018) 384-389

 

D.M. Trucchi, A. Bellucci, M. Girolami, M. Mastellone, S. Orlando
Surface Texturing of CVD Diamond Assisted by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Coatings 7 (2017) 185

 

• Functional thin-films

V. Serpente, A. Bellucci, M. Girolami, M. Mastellone, A. Mezzi, S. Kaciulis, R. Carducci, R. Polini and V. Valentini, D.M. Trucchi
Ultra-thin films of barium fluoride with low work function for thermionic-thermophotovoltaic applications
Mat. Chem. Phys 249 (2020) 122989

 

 

A. Bellucci, M. Mastellone, S. Orlando, M. Girolami, A. Generosi, B. Paci, P. Soltani, A. Mezzi, S. Kaciulis, R. Polini and D.M. Trucchi
Lanthanum (oxy)boride thin films for thermionic emission applications
Appl. Surf. Sci. 479 (2019) 296-302

 

A.Bellucci, M.Mastellone, M.Girolami, S.Orlando, L.Medici, A.Mezzi, S.Kaciulis, R.Polini and D.M.Trucchi
ZnSb-based thin films prepared by ns-PLD for thermoelectric applications
Appl. Surf. Sci. 418 (2017) 589-593

 

Facilities

The activities and equipment of the DiaTHEMA Lab are organized into three facilities, dedicated for the synthesis of materials, for characterization of materials and devices, and for prototyping. The facilities are also supported by the mechanical workshop service.

• Facility for Synthesis of Materials
  
  The thin-film materials’ deposition and processing facility is characterized by a wide choice of possible techniques that ensures great versatility in deposition, ranging from the growth of thin and ultra-thin films to the growth of polycrystalline structures:
  Microwave enhanced CVD Hot-filament CVD Electron beam evaporator ns-PLD (@193 nm) 2D-3D microfabrications by a fs pulsed laser coupl
   
• Characterization facility

  The characterization of materials and devices exploits the use and development of measurement techniques for morphological, optical, electronic, thermal and optoelectronic properties. All the experimental setups have been suitably optimized for the study of the performance and durability of advanced materials, both bulk and thin film form.
  The main instruments supplied to the laboratory include:

  • Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) AFM Quesant

  • Optical bench for spectral photoconducibilitySpectral photoconductivity composed by

    • High vacuum systems (10-8 mbar) VTEC

    • Solar simulator Solar furnace

    • Seebeck coefficient characterization system SEEBECK

    • Climatic Chamber

    • Infrared Thermo-camera for temperature measurements up to 2000 °C.

    • X-ray photoconductivity setup developed in collaboration with CNR-IC.
       

• Prototyping facility

  Main instruments include:

  • A RF/DC magnetron sputtering deposition system Leybold LH Z400

  • An electron beam evaporation system, for metallization or the fabrication of multilayer devicesIONVAC EVPK 500EBK

  • A Reactive Ion Etching system for micromachining RIE

  • A Pulsed Laser deposition system (PLD) ns-PLD (@193 nm)

  • A mask aligner Photolitography 1µm

  • A thermal/ultrasonic microwire-bonding Kulicke & Soffa 4123

  • A femtosecond laser microfabrication workstation 2 Photon lithography

Collaborations

• Ionvac Process;
• Università la Sapienza;
• Solaris Photonics;
• Enea;
• Abengoa Research;
• Fraunhofer ISE;
• Tel Aviv University;
• Exergy;
• Technion - Israel Institute of Technology;
• Sharp;
• Prysmian;
• Alta;
• CAEN;
• Università Roma Tre;
• INFN;
• Tübitak;
• Instituto de Energía Solar Universidad Politécnica de Madrid;
• Center for research and Technology Hellas Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute
• Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano