Research activities
Fundamental Physics with antimatter
- Atomic physics with positronium (Ps), the bound state of a positron and an electron.
- Study of gravity acting on antihydrogen, positronium and protonium.
- Positronium laser spectroscopy and positronium laser cooling.
- Production of positron/positronium converters
- Development of laser for positronium manipulation in selected quantum states.
- Development of positron bunched beams.
- Development of a beam of metastable positronium (long lived positronium)
- Study and development of position sensing detectors for charge particle and gamma rays with energy up to 511 keV.
- Study for the production of polarized positronium into vacuum.
- Study of the entanglement of gamma photons
Solid state Physics with antimatter
- Study and characterization of porosity, through detection of positronium formation (3 gammas PAS, Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy; PALS: Positron annihilation lifetime spectrosopy), in polymeric and biopolymer nanocomposite thin films for the realization of low permeability molecular and dielectric sieves.
- Characterization of the chemical surrounding of porosity, cavities and point defects by the CDBS (Coincidence Doppler Broadening Spectroscopy) technique.
- Depth profiling of vacancy like defects in oxide by DBS (Doppler Broadening Spectroscopy) and PALS.
Technology transfer
- Development of parabolic solar concentrators for alternative energy
Ongoing projects and collaborations
• INFN-TIFPA - CERN: Production of a beam of Antihydrogen for studies of matter-antimatter gravity interaction. AEgIS (Antimatter Experiment gravity Interferometry Spectroscopy) based at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN. https://aegis.web.cern.ch/aegis/
• CERN and Jagiellonian University in Cracow (Polland): Production of metastable positronium beam for interferometry and gravity studies. Development of: particle bunching systems, laser for positronium manipulation, position sensing detector, and a detector for high intensity gamma rays.
• University of Vienna (Austria) and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (Polland): Project in the field of quantum technologies: study of entanglement of gamma photons.
• Q@TN: a joint initiative of University of Trento, Bruno Kessler Foundation, and National Research Council within the framework of Quantum Technologies Flagship aimed at coordinating their on-going activities and to start new ones in the areas of fundamental quantum science, quantum communications, quantum computing, quantum simulations, future sensors and metrology
• Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Reactor (FRM II) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Bundeswehr University Munich. Study and characterization of porosity, cavities and point defects.
• Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Study of oxydes.
• Nicolaus Copernicus University of Torun (Polland). Positron atomic physics.
• Parabolic solar concentrators for alternative energy: in collaboration with DICAM and FBK.
Group members
- Head Roberto S. Brusa
- Professors Roberto S. Brusa
- Researchers Sebastiano Mariazzi, Ruggero Caravita
- Post Doc Sushil Sharma
- PhD students Luca Povolo, Marco Volponi
- Technical staff Marco Bettonte, Luca Penasa