Biography

The scientific activity of Giuseppe Balestrino is endorsed by more than 200 publications, concerning the physics of new materials. He has been invited speaker in several international conferences and gave a plenary talk at the EUCAS’05 conference (September 2005, Vienna) concerning his activity in the field of artificial superconducting heterostructures. In 2011 he has received the Ross Coffin Purdy Award from the American Ceramic Society for his achievements in the field of growth of thin films of solid oxides ionic conductors. GB has been in charge of the English Master Program in “Mathematical Engineering” of the University of Roma “Tor Vergata”, a program addressing talented students from Mathematics, Physics and Engineering. In 2012 and 2016, based on his scientific curriculum, the Italian Ministry of Education has selected him in the short list of experts allowed to take part, as a referee, in the national procedure for the selection of university professors of Physics of Matter.

Research Activity

The research activity of Giuseppe Balestrino protracted over almost four decades. Throughout his career as a researcher, Balestrino’s activity has been focused mostly on the synthesis and physical investigation of novel material, mostly high temperature superconducting, magnetic, and dielectric oxides of various composition. A specific approach was adopted which foresees following the whole process from materials synthesis (in the form of polycrystalline pellets, single crystals, thin films and complex heterostructures) to their structural and physical characterization.

Research Projects

Balestrino has been responsible for several scientific cooperation programs both national (mostly funded by the National Council of Research and by the Department of the University and Research, MIUR), and international.

Hereafter a restricted selection of funded projects:

• INTAS program 96-0452 between European countries and Russia (Local Coordinator).
• Galileo cooperation program between Italy and France (National Coordinator).
• Cooperation program between the University of Roma Tor Vergata and the Moscow Institute of Steel and alloys, 1992-94 (Principal Investigator)).
• Project of Advanced Research of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia (PRA 1996): “High temperature Superconducting superlattices” (Principal Investigator).
• Project of Relevant National Interest of MIUR (PRIN 1998): “Synthesis of new high Tc materials by thin film growth techniques” (Scientific Coordinator).

Selected Publications

• Influence of apical oxygen on the extent of in-plane exchange interaction in cuprate superconductors; Y. Peng, G. Dellea, M. Minola, M. Conni,  A. Amorese,    D. Di Castro,   G. M. De Luca, K. Kummer, M. Salluzzo, X. Sun, X. J. Zhou, G. Balestrino, M. Le Tacon, B. Keimer, L. Braicovich, N. B. Brookes & G. Ghiringhelli, Nature Physics (2017), Volume: 13   Issue: 12   Pages: 1201-+ Published: DEC 2017

• Role of Associated Defects in Oxygen Ion Conduction and Surface Exchange Reaction for Epitaxial Samaria-Doped Ceria Thin Films as Catalytic Coatings By: Yang, Nan; Shi, Yanuo; Schweiger, Sebastian; et al. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES Volume: 8   Issue: 23   Pages: 14613-14621   Published: JUN 15 2016

• High-T-c Superconductivity at the Interface between the CaCuO2 and SrTiO3 Insulating Oxides, Di Castro, D.; Cantoni, C.; Ridolfi, F.; et al. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS  Volume: 115   Issue: 14     Article Number: 147001   Published: SEP 28 2015

• Defective Interfaces in Yttrium-Doped Barium Zirconate Films and Consequences on Proton Conduction, Yang, Nan; Cantoni, Claudia; Foglietti, Vittorio; et al., NANO LETTERS  Volume: 15   Issue: 4   Pages: 2343-2349   Published: APR 2015

• Sub-nA spatially resolved conductivity profiling of surface and interface defects in ceria films, Farrow, Tim; Yang, Nan; Doria, Sandra; et al. APL MATERIALS Volume: 3   Issue: 3     Article Number: 036106   Published: MAR 2015

• Effect of Doping on Surface Reactivity and Conduction Mechanism in Samarium-Doped Ceria Thin Films, Yang, Nan; Belianinov, Alex; Strelcov, Evgheni; et al., ACS NANO Volume: 8   Issue: 12   Pages: 12494-12501   Published: DEC 2014.

• Heavily strained BaZr0.8Y0.2O3-x interfaces with enhanced transport properties, Foglietti, Vittorio; Yang, Nan; Tebano, Antonello; et al., APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS Volume: 104   Issue: 8     Article Number: 081612   Published: FEB 24 2014

• Water-mediated electrochemical nano-writing on thin ceria films, Yang, Nan; Doria, Sandra; Kumar, Amit; et al., NANOTECHNOLOGY Volume: 25   Issue: 7     Article Number: 075701   Published: FEB 21 2014.

• Raman spectroscopy study of the interface structure in (CaCuO2) n /(SrTiO3) m superlattices, D. Di Castro, S. Caramazza, D. Innocenti, G. Balestrino, C. Marini, P. Dore and P. Postorino, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 103, 191903 (2013).

• Nanoscale mapping of oxygen vacancy kinetics in nanocrystalline Samarium doped ceria thin films, Doria, Sandra Yang, Nan ; Kumar, Amit ; Jesse, Stephen ; Tebano, Antonello ; Aruta, Carmela ; Di Bartolomeo, Elisabetta ; Arruda, Thomas M. ; Kalinin, Sergei V. ; Licoccia, Silvia ; Balestrino Giuseppe, Applied Physics Letters Volume:103 ,  Issue: 17, Date of Publication: Oct 2013 Page(s):171605 – 171605-4

• Interface reconstruction in superconducting CaCuO2/SrTiO3 superlattices: A hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study, Aruta, C.; Schlueter, C.; Lee, T-L; Balestrino, G. et al., PHYSICAL REVIEW B  Volume: 87   Issue: 15     Article Number: 155145   DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.155145   Published: APR 24 2013

• Measurement of the effect of lattice strain on magnetic interactions and orbital splitting in CaCuO2 using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, Minola, M.; Hozoi, L.; Di Castro, D.; Balestrino G. et al, PHYSICAL REVIEW B  Volume: 87   Issue: 8     Article Number: 085124   DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.085124   Published: FEB 19 2013

• Tuning of the superconducting properties of FeSe 0.5Te 0.5 thin films through the substrate effect Bellingeri, E., Kawale, S., Braccini, V., Buzio, R., Gerbi, A., Martinelli, A., Putti, M., Balestrino, G., (…), Ferdeghini, C. 2012 Superconductor Science and Technology 25 (8) , art. no. 084022 0, Published: AUG 2012

• Occurrence of a high-temperature superconducting phase in (CaCuO2)(n)/(SrTiO3)(m) superlattices, Di Castro, D .; Salvato, M.; Tebano, A.; Innocenti, D.; Aruta, C.; Prellier, W.; Lebedev, O. I; Ottaviani, I., Brookes, N. B.; Minola, M.; Sala, M. Moretti; Mazzoli, C.; Medaglia, P. G.; Ghiringhelli, G.; Braicovich, L.; Cirillo, M.; Balestrino, G. Physical Review B  Volume: 86   Issue: 13, Published: OCT 22 2012

• Magnetic and ligand field properties of copper at the interfaces of (CaCuO 2) n/(SrTiO 3) n superlattices Minola, M., Di Castro, D., Braicovich, L., Brookes, N.B., Innocenti, D., Moretti Sala, M., Tebano, A., Balestrino, G.(…), Ghiringhelli, G. 2012 Physical Review B – Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 85 (23) , art. no. 235138 0,  Published: JUN 20 2012

• Room-temperature giant persistent photoconductivity in SrTiO 3/LaAlO 3 heterostructures Tebano, A., Fabbri, E., Pergolesi, D., Balestrino, G., Traversa, E.  2012 ACS Nano 6 (2) , pp. 1278-1283 1

• Energy and symmetry of dd excitations in undoped layered cuprates measured By Cu L 3 resonant inelastic x-ray scattering Moretti Sala, M., Bisogni, V., Aruta, C., Balestrino, G., Berger, H., Brookes, N.B., De Luca, G.M., (…), Ghiringhelli, G. 2011 New Journal of Physics 13 , art. no. 043026 5

• Preferential occupation of interface bands in La 2/3 Sr 1/3 MnO 3 films as seen via angle-resolved photoemission Tebano, A., Orsini, A., Medaglia, P.G., Di Castro, D., Balestrino, G., Freelon, B., Bostwick, A., (…), Saini, N.L. 2010 Physical Review B – Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 82 (21) , art. no. 214407

• 1 High proton conduction in grain-boundary-free yttrium-doped barium zirconate films grown by pulsed laser deposition Pergolesi, D., Fabbri, E., D’Epifanio, A., Di Bartolomeo, E., Tebano, A., Sanna, S., Licoccia, S., (…), Traversa, E.  2010 Nature Materials 9 (10), pp. 846-852

• 2 Enhancement of ionic conductivity in sm-doped ceria/yttria-stabilized zirconia heteroepitaxial structures  Sanna, S., Esposito, V., Tebano, A., Licoccia, S., Traversa, E., Balestrino, G.  2010 Small 6 (17), pp. 1863-1867

• 3 Momentum and polarization dependence of single-magnon spectral weight for Cu L3 -edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering from layered cuprates Braicovich, L., Moretti Sala, M., Ament, L.J.P., Bisogni, V., Minola, M., Balestrino, G., Di Castro, D., (…), Van Den Brink, J.  2010 Physical Review B – Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 81 (17), art. no. 174533

•  A novel single chamber solid oxide fuel cell based on chemically stable thin films of Y-doped BaZrO3 proton conducting electrolyte Fabbri, E., D’Epifanio, A., Sanna, S., Di Bartolomeo, E., Balestrino, G., Licoccia, S., Traversa, E.  2010 Energy and Environmental Science 3 (5), pp. 618-621

Teaching – link to Didattica Web

Giuseppe Balestrino is teaching the Physics 2 course for the Bachelor’s degree in “Ingegneria Medica”. He is in charge of the English Master Program in “Mathematical Engineering” of the University of Roma “Tor Vergata.
Giuseppe Balestrino has supervised more than 10 PhD theses, mostly in the field of superconducting materials and solid oxide ionic conductors.