Simone Borri (Ph.D.), is a Research Scientist at CNR since 2010. His main scientific interests include the development of high-stability coherent sources using novel optical devices (including crystalline microresonators), the study of noise properties of infrared semiconductor lasers (QCLs, ICLs), frequency metrology for fundamental research, and the development of trace-gas sensing techniques (cavity-enhanced, photoacoustic). Author or co-author of more than 40 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed top international scientific journals and about 70 communications to conferences. From ISI Web of Science his publications got more than 1500 citations with an H-index of 23.

Francesco Cappelli (Ph.D.), was born in Florence in 1986. After his classical high-school studies, he graduated in physics cum laude with a thesis about the optical injection locking of a quantum cascade laser with a narrow-linewidth mid infrared radiation. Afterwards he attended the “International Doctorate in Atomic and Molecular Photonics” (XXVIII cycle) at the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence under the supervision of Dr. Paolo De Natale. He spent his second PhD year at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in the group of Prof. Jérome Faist. He obtained the PhD degree with a thesis entitled “Mid-infrared single- and multi-frequency coherent sources for high-resolution molecular spectroscopy” rated as excellent by the commission. He got the additional title of doctor europaeus thanks to the research period spent at ETH. He was awarded with the 2013 Amat-Mills Prize,  the 2014 Nature Photonics best student paper Award and the 2015 CLEO-EU Travel grant student award. Afterwards he spent three years working as postdoc at CNR-INO presenting the results of his research activity on quantum cascade lasers on occasion of several international conferences in Europe as well as in the United States. Currently he works as a research scientist at CNR-INO. He is project manager of the Qombs Project (FET Flagship on Quantum Technologies G.A. n. 820419). This project has been funded by the European Commission with 9.33 M€ for investigating the potentiality of quantum cascade lasers as quantum states emitters. Five research institutes and five companies settled all around Europe constitute the project consortium. He is also in charge of the project work package dedicated to the advanced characterization of the quantum cascade lasers. From Scopus his publications got more than 390 citations with an H-index of 13. 

Tecla Gabbrielli (Ph.D. student), is a Ph.D. student at European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence, Italy. After them scientific high school studies, they graduated in physics cum laude at the University of Florence, Italy, with a master thesis on the realization of a mid-infrared balanced detector suitable for the quantum characterization of the light emitted by quantum cascade lasers in this spectral region. Now they are attending the “International Doctorate in Atomic and Molecular Photonics” (XXXV cycle) at the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence under the supervision of Alessandro Zavatta. Them main competences concern quantum optics, coding and quantum cascade lasers. they are currently associated with CNR-INO and participates in the Qombs Project working on the non-classical characterization of the emission of quantum cascade lasers.

Natalia Bruno (Ph.D.), is a research scientist at the Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO) of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) since November 2019. She received her Bachelor and Master degrees (M.Sc.) in Physics from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy, with a thesis on the generation and adoption for quantum information applications of two-photon multi-qubit hyperentangled states. She obtained a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015, in the group of Applied Physics under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas Gisin, pioneer in the field of quantum communication, where among her main achievements is the experimental realization and characterization of an entangled state of light involving up to 500 photons on average, analogous in its quantum features to a Schroedinger cat state. During a Post-Doc at ICFO in the Atomic Quantum Optics group led by Prof. Dr. M. W. Mitchell, she assembled a single neutral atom trap in order to study its interaction with resonant single photons. Her background puts together expertises in engineering and characterizing heralded single-photon sources in the infrared and telecom bandwidth for quantum information and communication applications, fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and cold atom physics for light-matter interactions in the quantum regime. From ISI Web of Science her publications got more than 320 citations with an H-index of 10. 

Giovanni Bianchini (Ph.D.), is a research scientist at CNR with more than 20 years of expertise in the field of optical sensors for the characterization of physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere. He contributed to the design, development and field operation of several spectrometers, including SAFIRE/A (Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere using Far-Infrared Radiation / Airborne) operating on the M-55 Geophysica high altitude aircraft and REFIR-PAD (Radiation Explorer in the Far-Infrared – Prototype for Applications and Development) which is installed since 2011 at the Italian-French Antarctic station Concordia. Since 1998 Giovanni Bianchini has taken part in measurement campaigns with ground-based, airborne and balloon-borne sensors and has gained extensive experience in designing instrumentation to be operated in extreme environments.

Guido Toci (Ph.D.), born 1966. Ph.D. in Physics in 1996, with a thesis on cascaded second order on nonlinear optical processes. Staff research scientist at CNR since 2001. His main research fields are: – New Solid State Lasers with active media based on innovative crystals and ceramics: characterization of the optical and laser properties of optical materials with different dopants (Ce, Yb, Nd, Tm)  for tunable laser emission. The research started on crystalline materials and it is currently mainly addressed to transparent ceramic materials.
– Development of laser and optical devices for aerospace applications and environmental monitoring: design, construction and mission deployment of an airborne laser diode spectrometer, for the measurement of HNO3 and H2O concentration in the stratospheric aerosol, installed  on the Geophysica-M55 stratospheric aircraft. Development and field deployment of LIDAR devices for vegetation and water bodies monitoring.
– Lasers and optical sensors for industrial applications: development of laser micromachining processes of optical materials; development of micro-laser marking processes for protection against counterfeiting. Development of sensors for welding process monitoring in the automotive industry, using plasma emission spectroscopy.
Author of about 85 peer reviewed papers, 1 international patent, 3 national patents. H-index 24 (Google Scholar).

Matteo Vannini (M.S.), Matteo Vannini was born on December 9th 1954. He received the “Laurea in Physics” on 21st December 1979. He worked in Frascati (Rome-Italy), Marseille (France) and in Los Alamos (USA) where he worked mainly on excimer UV lasers.  Since then he was at University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) where he worked on Nonlinear Optics on the second order cascade effect. Afterwards he was a staff member at CNR (National Research Council) where he was working on solid state laser. In particular he was working on Ce: LICAF in the UV region and then in the near infrared region with Yb doped media. He is the author of more than 100 papers and several conference communications.

Paolo De Natale (Ph.D.), has been, since 2010, director of INO-CNR (The National Institute of Optics of the Italian National Research Council, with more than 300 scientists working in 8 locations throughout Italy) and has been a member of LENS since 1988. His fields of interest are nonlinear optics, laser physics, atomic and molecular high-precision spectroscopy, frequency metrology and infrared coherent sources. P.D.N. has authored more than 300 papers, with an  h-index of 41, is editor of 8 scientific books/special volumes and co-author of the book “Laser-Based Measurements for Time and Frequency Domain Applications: a Handbook” (CRC Press). P.D.N. holds 9 patents related to optics and photonics technologies. He was awarded the SPIE fellowship in 2011 and OSA fellowship in 2015.

Davide Mazzotti (Ph.D. in Physics) took his M.Sc. in 1996 at University of Pisa (cum laude) with the thesis: “Sub-Doppler rotational spectroscopy of CH3I”. In 1997 he obtained at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa the Diploma in Physics (cum laude). In 2000 he took his Ph.D. at University of Firenze with the thesis: “A tunable and narrow-linewidth difference-frequency spectrometer around 4.25 μm for CO2 high-resolution spectroscopy”. In 2003 he was awarded a 4-year position as a young researcher under the FIRB 2001 project “Lithium niobate photonic microdevices”. Since 2007 he has been a researcher (permanent staff position) at CNR-INO. His expertise about mid-IR molecular spectroscopy includes: high-resolution/sensitivity measurement of ro-vibrational transitions with several spectroscopic techniques (including newly developed ones); nonlinear optics (development of new coherent sources with difference-frequency generation in periodically-poled LiNbO​3 crystals); characterization of novel mid-IR coherent sources (DFG spectrometers and QCLs); optical frequency metrology (mid-IR extension of visible/near-IR OFCSs). After its foundation (April 2016), he has been CEO of ppqSense S.r.l.. for 3 years. He is co-author of 48 articles published in international peer-reviewed journals and his works have collected 1480 citations, with ​ H​-index of 23 (source: ISI Web of Science). He is also co-author of 2 patents, 4 book chapters, 57 conference proceedings, 123 communications to national and international conferences (including 6 invited talks and 1 keynote lecture).

Amelia Detti (Ph.D. in Physics) took her B.Sc. in 2014 at University of Firenze (cum laude) with the thesis: “Physical realizations of single qubit logical gates”. She took her M.Sc. in 2016 (cum laude) at University of Firenze with the thesis: “Design and simulation of an optical objective for the imaging of Lithium atoms and Barium ions”. She took her Ph.D. in 2020 at University of Firenze with the thesis: “A new experimental apparatus for atom-ion quantum mixtures”. Since 2019 she has been working as a postdoc fellow for the realization of a quantum mixture of ultra-cold trapped Barium ions and degenerate neutral Lithium atoms at INRiM, the Italian national metrology institute. She was hired by ppqSense S.r.l. in July 2020 as a R&D staff member.  During her activity she has gained a variety of practical skills ranging from design and prototyping of electronic, mechanical and optical setups to software simulation and data analysis by use of computer technology.

Alessio Montori (B.Sc. in Technical Optics) while working in the private industry, he has developed experience in the repair of computer equipment, in particular printers, desktops and notebooks. He worked as an external technician-installer of security systems for banks and Italian Post Offices acquiring autonomy in the organization of work. During the years of collaboration with the university structures, in addition to the creation of standard control systems for spectroscopy and atomic physics experiments, he acquired a particular experience in the design of low-noise electronics for light detection and driving of laser sources. He gained extensive experience in the implementation of electro-optical setups for laser spectrometers used on avionics platforms and related problems of use in extreme environmental conditions. He has extensive experience in the use of CNC machines for the prototyping of printed circuits and the assembly of medium and high density boards with surface mount components (SMD). He has a great experience in using the Linux platform and in the management of networked systems, he has a good knowledge of C, C++, Python, PHP, HTML programming languages, analysis software like Microcal Origin and Matlab, of programming and of the use of MCUs for embedded systems.

Tommaso Conti (Electronics technician) graduated as electronics technician in High School at Florence in 2018. During High School he worked as an apprentice at LAD system S.r.l., a company that designs electromechanical units and sub-assemblies. After the graduation he was hired from ppqSense S.r.l. in 2018. During his studies and subsequently with his work, he learned to assemble and to debug complex electronic circuit boards, to easily use a variety of Arduino libraries and to program in C++, LabView  and HTML languages. He also has a good knowledge of Atmel microcontroller programming. At ppqSense S.r.l he learned to interact with the  scientific staff to fulfill the requirements in the electronics field on highly specialized equipment. His main activities at ppqSense S.r.l are to assemble, to wire and to debug power supplies for semiconductor diode lasers and quantum cascade lasers. He is able to perform tests and calibration of these instruments and to program and to interact with their software.