Lara Benfatto's homepage

Curriculum


Personal details

Place of birth: Roma, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Marital status Married (one son, born 2011)
Languages Italian, English, French


Education


1998 - 2001
PhD in Physics at the Physics Department of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Supervisor C. Castellani. Defense on the 8th February 2002
1993- 1998

Master in Physics (with full marks and honor) at the Physics Department of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Supervisor C. Castellani. Defense on the 30th October 1998
1993

High School degree with full marks at "Liceo Ginnasio Statale T. Tasso" in Rome.

Academic Appointments


2022-present
Full professor
in Theoretical Physics of Condensed Matter (02/B2), Dep. of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome
2019-2022
Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics of Condensed Matter (02/B2), Dep. of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome
2009 - 2019
Researcher at the CNR-ISC, Rome, Italy;
2006 - 2009
Young Researcher Grant of the "Enrico Fermi" Center of Rome, Rome, ItaLY;
2004 - 2006
Postdoctoral Researcher of the INFM Research and Development Center for Statistical Mechanics and Complexity, Department of Physics, University of Rome ``La Sapienza'';
2003 - 2004
Postdoctoral Researcher of the Swiss National Foundation within the MANEP project. Collaboration with the Condensed Matter Theory groups at: University of Fribourg, University of Neuchatel, University of Geneva, Switzerland;
2001- 2003
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Physics Department of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland;


Other Appointments

2024 - present Vice-coordinator of the PhD program in Physics at Sapienza

2023 - present Coordinator of the GEP (Gender Equality Plan) committee at the Physics Department

2020 - present Designed member of the PhD Board of the PhD in Physics at Sapienza since the a.y. 2020-2021

2024 - Guest Editor of the Topical Review Unconventional High-Temperature Superconductors in npj Quantum Material

2019- 2022 Elected member of the Faculty Board as representative of Associate Professors in Physics

2017
- 2022 Designed member of the Editorial Board of Physical Review B

Prizes and Recognitions


2018 - I have been awarded by the Ludwig-Genzel Prize 2018 "for advancing the theoretical understanding of the dynamical response of interacting electronic systems, in particular superconductors"

2016 - I have been named Oustanding Referee for the journals of the American Physical Society

Funded Projects

SuperTop, Topological Phases of Matter in 2D Superconducting materials, MAECI collaborative Italy-India project. January 2017- December 2019. Role: Principal Investigator.

PRIN 2012: RIDEIRON "Using controlled disorder to investigate the mechanims of iron-based superconductors". March 2014-March 2017. Role: Coordinator of the CNR Unit.

FIRB Futuro in Ricerca 2012: HybridNanoDev "Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanostructures: nanoelectronic applications, topological properties, correlation and disorder". March 2013-March 2016. Role: Member of the Unit

Conferences organization


KITP program: "Quantum Materials With and Without Quasiparticles" (Aug 28- Nov 10 2023) and related Conference "Electronic Correlations beyond the Quasiparticle Paradigm: Theory and Experiments" (Sep 18- Sep 21). UC Santa Barbara, US.

Faraday discussion on "Optical to THz Control of Materials", London, UK, May 23-25 2022. Published papers and discussions available here.

International Conference "SuperTop2019:
Emergent phenomena at low dimensions", Sapienza University of Rome, 4-6 September 2019.

Workshop "Light and Technology: the frontier of emergent systems", Sapienza University of Rome, March 18 2019.

International Conference: "Low energy electrodynamics in solids" LEES 2018, Portonovo, Ancona, Italy,  24-29 June, 2018.

International Workshop on 2D Superconductivity "SuperTop2018", Rome, 22 June 2018.

Workshop: "New frontiers for Majorana fermions from condensed to dark matter", LNF Frascati, 5-6 May 2014.

Workshop: "Superconductivity on the verge: nanostructures and inhomogeneity", Lorentz Center, Leiden, 27-31 July 2015.

Students supervising

PhD Students


Master Students



Talks at conferences and schools

So far, I delivered 79 talks at international conferences and workshops, among them 56 invited. The detailed list can be found below.


2022-present

Theoretical advances in non-linear Thz spectroscopy of superconductors
22 February 2024, workshop "New directions for nonlinear and nonequilibrium probes of many-body systems"
Flatiron Institute -Center for Computational Quantum Physics, New York, US (invited) 

Collective modes in superconductors and their spectroscopic detection
19 September 2023, International Conference "Electron Correlations beyond the Quasiparticle Paradigme: Theory and Experiments" KITP, Santa Barbara, US (invited)

Driving materials with THz light: a theoretical perspective on experimental challenges
5 September 2023, CMD-30 FisMat, Milan, Italy (invited)

Optical response of plasma waves in cuprate superconductors
29 June 2023, International Conference Low Energy Electrodynamics in Solids LEES-2023, Sankt Polten, Austria (invited)

Optical response of Josephson-like plasma waves in superconductors
6 June 2023, International workshop on The physics of disordered superconductors and their application to quantum circuits - QuanDi, 5-9 June 2023, Les Houches, France (invited)

Disorder and multiband effects on the third-harmonic generation in superconductors
14 November 2022, International Conference on Non-Equilibrium and Quantum States, Dongguan, China (invited, online)

Generalized plasma waves in layered superconductors and their spectroscopic signatures
8 September 2022, International Conference Correlated Matter and Light, Geneva, Switzerland (invited)

Plasma waves in layered superconductors 
31 August 2022, International Conference Strongly Correlated Matter: from Quantum Criticality to Flat Bands, ICTP Trieste, Italy (invited)

Generalized plasma waves in layered superconductors and their spectroscopic signatures
20 July 2022, International Conference Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity M2S-2022, Vancouver, Canada (invited)

2018-2021

Plasma waves in layered superconductor
1 October 2021, International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems SCES-2020, Brazil (invited, online)

Third-harmonic generation from plasma waves in cuprates
8 July 2021, International Conference Low-energy Electrodynamics in Solids, LEES-2021, Portland, US (invited, online)

Dynamical signatures of a fragile glass transition in thin superconducting films

2 June 2021, International Conference Vortex 20201, India (invited, online)

THz driving of superconducting phase excitations: new advances and open questions
18 March 2021, APS March Meeting, US (invited, online)

THz driving of superconducting phase modes
12 February 2021, International Psi-K Workshop: Correlated synthetic quantum matter, Bremen, Germany (invited, online)

Theory of collective-modes detection in time-resolved spectroscopies
4 February 2020, GRC Ultrafast Phenomena in Cooperative Systems, Barga (Lucca), Italy (invited)

Unconventional spectroscopies of superconducting collective modes
23 September 2019, Quantum Materials Symposium (QMS) 2019, Oxford, England (invited)

Pump-probe spectroscopy of superconducting collective modes: from phonons to superconducting excitations
15 July 2019, USCQM, Lyang, China (invited)

Fingerprints of nematicity in iron-based superconductors,
12 June 2019, Workshop "Recent developments in superconductivity", IFW-Dresden, Germany (invited)

Pump-probe spectroscopy of collective modes
5 June 2019, Workshop "Paris Ultrafast 2019", University Paris-Diderot, Paris, France (invited)

Superconducting two-dimensional materials and the SuperTop project,
18 March, 2019, Workshop "Light and Technology", Sapienza University of Rome, Italy (invited)

Superconductivity out of nematic order: complexity beyond strong correlations
6 August 2018, Workshop "Correlations in Electron Systems- from Quantum Criticality to Topology", ICTP, Trieste,Italy (invited)

Nematic ordering and pairing from orbital-selective spin fluctuations in FeSe
23 May 2018, International Workshop on Electronic Structure of Superconductors and Novel Materials, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy (invited)

Disordered phase modes in quasi-2D superconductors,
15 May 2018, International Conference "Multi-Condensate Superconductivity and Superfluidity in Solids and Ultra-cold Gases", ICTP, Trieste, Italy (invited) 

New frontiers in the optical detection of superconducting collective modes
9 March 2018, Conference "Novel Superconductors: Materials and Properties", Nordita, Stockholm, Sweden (invited)

Collective superconducting modes: old problems and new perspectives.
January 13, 2018, Frontiers in Many Body Physics, Lev Gor'kov Memorial, Tallahassee, Florida, USA (invited)


2017-2016

Inhomogeneity in low-dimensional superconductors,
2 October 2017, FisMat2017, Trieste, Italy (invited).

Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless theory and its applications to superconductors,
8-10 August 2017 (3 lectures), School on Unconventional Superconductivity: Experiment and Theory, IESC, Cargese, Corsica, France (invited).

Collective superconducting modes and their experimental signatures
5 June 2017, Gordon Conference on Superconductivity, Waterville Valley, NH, USA (invited)

Interplay between orbital and spin degrees of freedom in the nematic phase of irone-based  superconductors
14 July 2016, Multicomponent and Strongly correlated Superconductors, Nordita, Stockholm, Sweden (invited)

Spectrosocpy of disordered superconductors
June 29, 2016, Disordered  in Condensed Matter and Ultracold Atoms, Cargese, France (invited).

Can we detect the Higgs mode via optical spectroscopy?
June 21, 2016, SNS-2016 Spectroscopy of Novel Superconductors, Ludwigsburg, Germany (invited).

Quantum confinement and disordered phase modes in granular Al
April 13, 2016, Workshop Probing superconductivity at the nanoscales, Saas Fee, Switzerland (invited).

Spectroscopic signatures of superconducting collective modes
March 7, 2016, DPG Spring Meeting, Ratesburg, Germany (invited).


2015-2013

Optical spectroscopy in inhomogeneous superconductors
December 18, 2015, Ugo Fano Symposium, Rome, Italy (invited).

Optical spectroscopy of disordered superconductors
August 27, 2015, International Conference M2S-2015, Geneva, Switzerland (invited keynote speaker).

Spectroscopic signatures of phase and amplitude modes in superconductors
July 3, 2014, International conference LEES 2014 (Low Energy Dynamics in Solids), Loire Valley, France.

Leggett modes in iron-based superconductors in proximity of a Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking,
June 24, 2014, International conference MultiSuper 2014, Camerino, Italy.

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics at the verge of the superconductor-insulator transition
February 13, 2014, International Workshop on Strongly Disordered Superconductors, Villard-de-Lans, Grenoble, France.

Leggett modes in iron-based superconductors as a probe of Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking
September 19, 2013, Conference "Disorder and Correlations", Rome, Italy (invited).

Signatures of glassy physics near the superconductor-insulatro transition
September 3, 2013, International Conference on Trasport in Interacting Disordered Systems (TIDS-15), Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain (invited).

Superconductor-insulator transition at strong disorder: unconventional superfluid response and glassy physics
July 4, 2013, International Conference NGSCES-2013, Sestri Levante (GE), Italy.

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics at the verge of the superconductor-insulator transition in conventional superconductors
May 16, 2013, Gordon Conference on Superconductivity, Les Diablerets, Switzerland.

Superconductor-insulator transition at strong disorder: unconventional superfluid response and glassy physics
March 14, 2013, CMTP workshop "Disordered systems and random matrix theory", University of Roma 3, Rome, Italy (invited).


2012-2011

Unconventional Hall effect from interband interactions in pnictides
September 19, 2012, XCVIII National Meeting of the Italian Physical Society (SIF), Naple, Italy (invited).

Optical properties of correlated electron systems: basic theoretical aspects and optical sum rule
Two lectures, August 8, 2012, School ``Innovations in Strongly Correlated Electronic Systems'', ICTP Trieste, Italy  (invited).

Role of the vortex-core energy in the Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition,
July 31, 2012, Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity (M2S) 2012, Washington, US (invited).

Optical and transport properties in pnictides: anomalous effects due to interband interactions
July 26, 2012, Low Energy Electrodynamics in Solids (LEES) 2012, Napa, California, US (invited).

Optical and transport properties of pnictides
March 22, 2012, Workshop: Superconductivity in iron-based compounds, Munich, Germany (invited).


2010-2008

Recent developments on the Kosterlitz-Thouless theory in quasi-2D superconductors
December 14, 2010, ICMP-2010 School, Mysore (Bangalore), India (invited).

Magnetotransport and topological excitations in a doped antiferromagnetic insulator
December 4, 2010,  International COnference Physical Phenomena at High Magnetic Field (PPHMF-VII) Tallahasse, Florida, US (invited).

Superconducting properties of pnictides within a multiband Eliashberg approach 

August 4, 2010, Workshop on Principles and Design of Strongly Correlated Electron Systems, ICTP, Trieste, Italy (invited).

Eliashberg approach to multiband pairing in pnictides
May 12, 2010 International Conference Electronic Structure of Fe-based Superconductors, Stuttgart, Germany (invited).

Role of multiband structure and interband pairing in pnictides
April 15, 2010 HTSC Workshop FOR538, Munich, Germany (invited).

Inhomogeneity and phase fluctuations in low-dimensional superconductors
July 2, 2009 International conference Glassy09 (Emergence of Inhomogeneous Phases in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems), Paris, France (invited).

Multiple gaps and superfluid density in a four-band model for oxypnictides
December 11, 2008, International Conference Stripes 2008, Rome, Italy.

Role of the inhomogeneity and of the vortex-core energy in ultra-thin films of cuprates,
October 23, 2008, International Workshop Nanoscience & Nanatechnology, INFN-LNF, Frascati, Italy (invited).

Electron properties of graphene: understanding interactions from the gap opening,
October 20, 2008, International School Nanoscience & Nanatechnology, INFN-LNF, Frascati, Italy (invited).

Superconductivity in (quasi) two-dimensional systems,
October 16-17 (two lectures), 2008, INFM School on ``Physics in low dimensions'', Lucca, Italy (invited).

Unconventional antiferromagnetism and magnetoresistance in lightly-doped La2CuO4,
August 29, 2008, CMD22, Rome, Italy.

The role of the vortex-core energy within the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition,
August 28, 2008, CMD22, Rome, Italy.

Superconducting fluctuations, vortex-core energy and inhomogeneities in cuprate superconductors,
June 30, 2008, CoFuS08, MPI Dresden, Germany.

Kosterlitz-Thouless fluctuations in two-dimensional systems,
March 20, 2008, Satt14, Parma, Italy.

2007-2006

Dirac fermions with zero effective mass in condensed matter: new perspectives,
November 29, 2007, First Conference of the ``Enrico Fermi'' Center, Compendio del Viminale, Rome, Italy (invited).

Signatures of Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior in layered superconductors: the role of the vortex-core energy,
September 27, 2007, DyProSoXXXI, Porto, Portugal.

Temperature dependence of the sum rule in the normal state: beyond the standard Sommerfeld paradigm,
July 2, 2007, Workshop ``Optical sum rules: their relevance to high Tc superconductors and correlated systems'',  Rome, Italy (invited).

Dirac Fermions with zero effective mass in condensed matter,
Award Cerimony "Ettore Majorana" Prize, Pontifical Academy of Science, December 21, 2006, The Vatican (Rome), Italy.

Signatures of Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior in anisotropic layered superconductors,
December 19, 2006, International Conference Stripes 2006, Rome, Italy.

Unconventional antiferromagnetism and Raman scattering in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions,
July 1, 2006, LEES06, Tallin, Estonia (invited).

Temperature dependence of the conductivity sum rule in the normal state,
March 30, 2006, Satt13, Sestri Levante (Genova) Italy.

Unconventional antiferromagnetism in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions: the case of La2CuO4,
March 13, 2006, 2006 APS March Meeting, Baltimore, US.


2005-2001

"Transport properties in cuprates: the role of spin and charge inhomogeneities,
October 1, 2004, 4th International Conference on ``Nanoscale Heterogeneity and Quantum Phenomena in Complex Matter'' (Stripes 2004), Rome, Italy.

Transport properties in cuprates: the role of spin and charge inhomogeneities,
May 28, 2004, Workshop ``Fluctuating Charge Order in HTSC'', Garching, Germany (invited).

Transport properties in cuprates: the role of charge and spin inhomogeneities,
April 22, 2004, Satt12 XII National Conference on Superconductivity, Rome, Italy (invited).

The low-energy phase-only action in a supersonductor: a comparison with the XY model,
March 22, 2004, APS March Meeting 2004, Montreal Canada.

Signature of stripe pinning in the optical conductivity,
March 23, 2004, APS March Meeting 2004, Montreal Canada.

Signature of stripe pinning in the optical conductivity,
March 12, 2003, Workshop on ``Existence and relevance of inhomogeneities in oxides'', University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzeland.

Signature of stripe pinning in the optical conductivity,
February 10, 2003, MaNEp topical meeting ``Non-Fermi Liquids and Low Dimensional Systems'', Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Coherence length in superconductors from weak to strong coupling,
June 28, 2002, ``Rencontre romande sur les systemes fortement Correles'', Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Effetti delle fluttuazioni di fase in presenza di dissipazione in superconduttori in onda d,
March 26, 2001, XX Convegno di Fisica Teorica e Struttura della Materia, Fai della Paganella, Italy.


Invited talks at research institutes

So far, I delivered 35 invited talks among seminars, lectures and colloquia at international research institutes. The detailed list can be found below

2024-2020

Driving materials with THz light: a theoretical perspective on experimental challenges
16 January 2024, MPI For Solid State Research Colloquium, Stuttgart  (Germany)

Driving materials with THz light: a theoretical perspective on experimental challenges
19 December 2023, QUAST-for5249 Colloquium (online)

Higgs mode in superconductors and its spectroscopic signatures,
November 19 2021, Physics Department, University of Bristol (UK) (online)

Manipulating matter with light: the case of superconductors
December 4, 2020, Hamburg Photon Science Colloquium, Ma
x Planck Institute, Hamburg (Germany) (online)

Manipulating matter with light: the case of superconductors
November 30, 2020, Harvard Physics Colloquium, Department of Physics, Harvard University (US) (online)


2019-2011

Quantum and classical phase fluctuations in 2D superconductors,
April 8, 2019, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen (Denmark)

Unconventional spectroscopies of superconducting collective modes: new advances and open questions
March 27, 2019, Linne' Colloquium, University of Chalmers, Goteborg, (Sweden)

New Frontiers in the optical detection of Superconducting collective modes
October 29, 2018, TIFR, Mumabi (India)

Lecture I: The Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition: the two-dimensional world and its peculiarities
Lecture II: Applications to superfluids. What we should expect to see in real systems
September 20-21, 2018, INSP - Sorbonne Université , Paris (France)

The Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless  theory and its applications to superconductors
October 25, 2016, Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy (Physics Colloquium)

The Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless  theory and its applications to superconductors
October 12, 2016, University of Paris VII, Paris (France)

The fate of the Higgs mode in superconductors: theory and experiments
November 5, 2015, ESPCI Paris (France)

Static and dynamical Beresinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless vortex fluctuations in disordered thin films,
January 13, 2015, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart (Germany)

Spectroscopic signatures of amplitude and phase modes in superconductors
October 16, 2014, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK).

What is new and interesting in the physics of pnictides?  A hint from transport properties
March 27, 2014, University of Genova, Italy.

Interband interactions and optical sum rule in pnictides,
February 15, 2011, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart (Germany) 


2010-2006

New paradigms for the Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior in low-dimensional superconductors
December 10, 2010, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumabi, India

The Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in 2D superconductors: open problems and
new perspectives
March 5, 2010, ISC-CNR, Department of Physics, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.

Multiband structure and interband pairing in pnictides: two crucial ingredients to understand the experiments
January 14, 2010, Department of Physics, University of Augsburg, TRR-80 seminar, Augsburg, Germany.

Emergence of new physics from interband pairing in pnictide superconductors,

June 29, 2009, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides,  University Paris-Sud, Orsay (Paris), France.

Emergence of unconventional antiferromagnetism in frustrated magnetic systems: the case of La-based cuprates,
May 16, 2008, Department of Physics, University of Crete, Heraklion, Grece (Physics Colloquium).

Superconductivity in quasi two dimensions: open problems, new results and perspectives,
April 17, 2008, Istituto di Ciencia des Materials, Madrid, Spain.

Lack of universal behavior of the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase fluctuations in cuprate superconductors,
January 23, 2008, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen Switzeland.

Non-universal character of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in layered superconductors: the role of the vortex-core energy,
November 20, 2007, Department of Physics, University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior in layered systems: role of the vortex-core energy,
June 27, 2007, University of Naples ``Federico II'', Italy.

Signatures of Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior in anisotropic layered superconductors,
October 24, 2006, MPI, Stuttgart, Germany.


2005-2000

Anomalous magnetic behavior of the two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions,
September 7, 2005, DPMC, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Unusual magnetic properties of La2CuO4: the role of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions,
July 19, 2005, WMI, Garching  (Munich), Germany.

Transport properties in frustrated Heisenberg systems,
October 22,2004, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Analysis of phase-fluctuation effect in a d-wave superconductor,
May 23, 2002, Department of Physics, University of  Lausanne, Switzerland.

Phase fluctuations in High-Tc superconductors: from the experiments to the theory,
April 19, 2002, Department of Physics, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Phase fluctuations, dissipation and superfluid stiffness in d-wave superconductors,
May 17, 2001, Department of Physics, University of  Fribourg, Switzerland.

Fluttuazioni di fase, dissipazione e densita' di superfluido nei superconduttori in onda d,
October 23, 2000, Department of Physics, University of Rome ``La Sapienza'', Italy.

Effetto dei modi collettivi sulla densita' di superfluido nei cuprati superconducttori,
March 13, 2000, Department of Physics, University of Rome ``La Sapienza'', Italy.