My bachelor degree was obtained in Nuclear Engineering (1998, cum laude) and subsequently I got Master (2006) and PhD (2007, cum laude) degrees in Materials Science and Engineering. The topic of my PhD thesis was the fabrication and characterization of copper nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in silica for applications in plasmonics. The fabrication was done by means of ion implantation whereas the characterization was performed using electron microscopy and a number of X-ray-based and optical techniques. I also worked in the fabrication of plasmonic particles composed of other metals (gold, silver and zinc) or with different shapes (nanorods).

After graduating, I continued studying the optical response of different types of metallic NPs, like nanoshells and nanorods, mostly from a computational point of view, and developed some tools useful to perform calculations in this field. Experimentally, I was involved in the fabrication, by magnetron sputtering, of ultra-hard coatings based on nanocomposites, the use of a hydrogen plasma generated by a hollow cathode system to etch a silica surface and the fabrication of some core-shell structures. For example, we used the sequential implantation of silver and gold ions to produce Au-Ag structures and a high-current pulsed arc to fabricate silver particles coated with a nanometric layer of amorphous carbon.

I have ample experience in the characterization of materials by means of optical techniques, such as spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman scattering. An example of this work was the fabrication and characterization of a proof-of-concept organic position sensitive photodetector based on a lateral donor-acceptor concentration gradient. Moreover, I have studied the interaction of swift heavy ions with matter, focusing on applications like the fabrication of optical waveguides or the use of some materials as sensors of radiation damage. In parallel to the main theme of these stays, I have continued with the computational study of the interaction of light with different nanostructures and probably the most important result of this work is the proposal of some simple structures where all-plasmonic Fano resonances can be achieved. Related with this work, I was invited to contribute a book chapter describing the most important applications of metallic nanoshells.

Currently, I work in the framework of the European laser fusion ESFRI project, HiPER, in the design and testing of optical components (final lenses) for fusion facilities. Materials constitute a bottleneck for nuclear fusion; hence, development of new (nanostructured) materials with enhanced radiation-resistance, mechanical and optical properties is an important and challenging topic. Beyond my contributions in nuclear fusion, I work on a research line focused on the design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures, optimized for the catalysis of endothermic reactions, like water splitting and CO2 reduction to produce hydrogen and synthetic fuels, respectively. Some results of this work have been published in high impact journals, like Science and Nano Letters.