Materials and Processes for Micro & Nano Technologies

In the last years, I've been involved in the simulation of different properties of materials by means of ab-initio Molecular Dynamics method. The main research topics have been:

The structural and electronic properties of solid/solid interfaces. In particular I examined the case of higly mismatched systems and analyzed the role of misfit dislocations and their core reconstruction;

Surface chemistry: study of ractivity of water molecules with the SiC(001) surface. The effect of the surface termination was examined and the mechanism that eventually leads to dissociation analyzed in details;

Solid/liquid interface study.

1. Cicero G., J. C. Grossman, G. Galli, Catellani A.:
"Water at hydrophilic solid surface probed by ab-initio molecular dynamics: inhomogeneous thin layers of denser fluid"
Journal of Am. Chem. Soc., 127 (2005), 6830.

2. Cicero G., Catellani A. Galli G.: “Atomic control of water interaction with biocompatible surfaces: The case of SiC(001)”,
Phys. Rev. Lett., 93 (2004), 016102/1-4.

3. Pizzagalli L, Cicero G., Catellani A.:
"Theoretical investigation of highly mismatched interface: the case of SiC/Si(001)",
Phys. Rev. B, 68 (2003), 195302.

4. Catellani A., Cicero G., Galli G., Pizzagalli L.:
"First principles simulations of extended defects at cubic SiC surfaces and interfaces",
Solid State Phenomena, 95-96 (2003), 415.

5. Cicero G., Pizzagalli L,Catellani A.:
" Ab-initio study of misfit dislocations at the SiC/Si(001) interface",
Phys. Rev. Lett., 89 (2002), 156101-156104.

6. Cicero G., Pizzagalli L.,Catellani A.:
" A Molecular Dynamics Study of the beta-SiC/Si(001) interface",
Journal of Physics: Cond. Matt., 14 (2002), 13031-13036

7. Cicero G., Catellani A.:
" First principles study of the initial stages of SiC growth on Si(001)",
Appl. Phys. Lett., 28 (2001), 2312-2314.

8. Cicero G., Catellani A.:
" C adsorption and diffusion at the Si(001) surface: implication for SiC growth ",
Appl. Surf. Sci., 184 (2001), 113-117.