Research

My field of research is theoretical condensed matter physics. Since my PhD I have been working on different aspects of this wide research area, with particular focus on correlated states in reduced dimensionality, as summarised below. For further details, here you can find a complete list of my publications.

Graphene, Carbon nanotubes and NEMS: The main focus of my research since few years are the electromechanical properties of graphene membranes and carbon nanotubes, and the quantum transport in nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS).

In this area I actively collaborate with the groups of Felix von Oppen (Freie Universitaet Berlin), Guillaume Weick (Strasbourg), Maura Sassetti (Genova) and Jari Kinaret (Chalmers).

Highlight papers in graphene and NEMS:

• R. Leturcq, C. Stampfer, K. Inderbitzin, L. Durrer, C. Hierold, Eros Mariani, M.G. Schultz, F. von Oppen and K. Ensslin, "Franck-Condon blockade in suspended carbon nanotube quantum dots", Nature Physics 5, 327 - 331 (2009)

• Eros Mariani and F. von Oppen, "Flexural phonons in free-standing graphene", Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 076801 (2008)

Plasmonics and Polaritonics: I recently started a new research project on cavity embedded metasurfaces. Here we showed how interactions between dipolar oscillators give rise to a polaritonic bandstructure that is tunable with the cavity width, with the emergence of chiral bosonic Dirac-like quasiparticles in 2D honeycomb arrays.

In this area I collaborate with the groups of Bill Barnes (Exeter), Ortwin Hess (Imperial College) and Guillaume Weick and Rodolfo Jalabert (Strasbourg).

Highlight papers in plasmonics and polaritonics:

• C-R. Mann, S.A.R. Horsley and Eros Mariani, "Tunable pseudo-magnetic fields for polaritons in strained metasurfaces", Nature Photonics 14, 669 (2020)
• C-R. Mann, T.J. Sturges, G. Weick, W.L. Barnes and Eros Mariani, "Manipulating Type-I and Type-II Dirac Polaritons in Cavity-Embedded Honeycomb Metasurfaces", Nature Communications 9, 2194 (2018)
• G. Weick, C. Woollacott, W. Barnes, O. Hess and Eros Mariani, "Dirac-like plasmons in honeycomb lattices of metallic nanoparticles", Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 106801 (2013)

Quantum Hall Effects and Cold Atoms: In the past years I also worked on cold atoms and on the fractional quantum Hall effects (Chern-Simons quantum field theory, composite fermions and non-abelian quantum Hall states).

Along this line, my main collaborations have been with the groups of Ady Stern (Weizmann Institute of Science), Felix von Oppen (Freie Universitaet Berlin), Rolf Haug (Hannover) and Maura Sassetti (Genova)

Education and Employment

• 2016 - present: Director of Global Development in Physics, Exeter University (UK)
• 2015 - present: Senior Lecturer in Physics, Exeter University (UK)
• 2010 - 2015: Lecturer in Physics, Exeter University (UK)
• 2006 - 2009: Research assistant, Freie Universitaet Berlin (Germany)
• 2003 - 2006: Feinberg Postdoctoral Fellow, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)
• 2003: Ph.D in Theoretical Physics, Universitaet Hamburg (Germany)

Funded Research Projects

• 2012-13 Royal Society Research Grant RG110429, £12K
• 2014-16 Royal Society International Exchanges IE140367 with Chalmers (SWE), £12K
• 2015-18 Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant, RPG-2015-101, £260K
• 2017-19 Royal Society Theo Murphy Blue Skies Award, £70K
• 2019-21 Royal Society International Exchanges with CNR Pisa (ITA), £12K
• 2020 WellcomeTrust Seed Corn Funding, £10K

Teaching

I am the module leader of two modules in the Master in Physics Programme at the University of Exeter (UK): Statistical Physics (PHYM001, Stage 4) and Quantum Many-Body Theory (PHYM013, Stage 4)

Invited presentations

Invited presentations at workshops and conferences since Jan 2008

• RTN Workshop, Jacobs University Bremen (Germany), February 19th, 2008. Title: “Electromechanical properties of suspended graphene”
• Italian conference of theoretical physics, Sestri Levante (Italy), June 24th, 2008. Title: “Il grafene tra QED e membrane elastiche”
• Workshop of nanoelectronics, Jacobs University Bremen (Germany), May 2010. Title: “Flexural phonons in suspended graphene”
• International Graphene Workshop, KITP Santa Barbara (USA), January 2012. Title: “Electromechanical properties of suspended mono- and bi-layer graphene”
• International conference on graphene GSS-13, Tallinn (Estonia), June 2013. Title: “Electromechanical properties of graphene membranes”
• International conference "Atomically thin materials", Exeter (UK), April 2014. Title: “Manipulating the flavours of graphene membranes”
• International conference "GDR I - Graphene Nanotubes", Strasbourg (France), September 2014. Title: “Manipulating the flavours of real and artificial graphene”
• International conference “ISNP 2015”, Cefalu’ (Italy), September 2015
• International school “Physics by the lake”, Windsor (UK), August 2016
• International workshop “Induced strain in atomically thin materials”, Exeter, July 2018
• International workshop “Quantum light in nanostructures”, Maratea (Italy), July 2018
• International school “Nanophotonics, Photovoltaics and Metamaterials”, Varadero (Cuba), April 2019

Contributions to the scientific community

• External examiner for the award of PhD degrees at Lancaster University, UK (2013)
• External examiner for the award of PhD degrees at Chalmers University, Goteborg, Sweden (2013)
• External examiner for the award of PhD degrees at Chalmers University, Goteborg, Sweden (2017)
• External examiner for the award of PhD degrees at Strasbourg University, France (2019)

Membership

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Member of the American Physical Society (APS)
• Member of the German Physical Society (DPG)

Awards and Prizes

• Feinberg Fellowship of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), 2003
• Merit Award, University of Exeter (UK), 2012
• National Professorship Habilitation - ASN, (Italy), 2014
• Theo Murphy Blue Skies Award from the Royal Society (UK), 2017
• Above and Beyond Award, University of Exeter (UK), 2020