CURRICULUM VITAE of Prof. Riccardo Bertacco
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born in Varese, 25th July 1968
Office: Polifab - Politecnico di Milano
Via Giuseppe Colombo 81, 20133 Milano (Italy)
Telephone: +39 0223999663
e-mail: riccardo.bertacco@polimi.it
web site: http://nabis.fisi.polimi.it
SHORT PERSONAL PROFILE
Riccardo Bertacco is Associate Professor at the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano. He is currently
heading the Nanomagnetism for Biology and Spintronics group (NaBiS) of the Physics Department,
composed by two assistant professors, a staff technician, 2 post-doc, 5 PhD students, 3 undergraduate
students. His group is currently coordinating 4 granted projects involving also Italian companies for the
exploitation of two patents.
He is the deputy director of new laboratory for micro and nanofabrication at Politecnico di Milano (PoliFab,
370 m2 of clean room and annexed laboratories for a value of around 5 M€), where is located also his
research activity. Polifab is a pay-per-use, open access facility, with three qualified technicians dedicated to
the clean room under the responsibility of R. Bertacco, shared by all departments of Politecnico di Milano
and open to external users.
He is author of 115 papers, two chapters of books and 7 patent applications. Current H index: 21 (Scopus).
He participated in many schools and conferences with contributed talks and invited talks. Member of the
scientific committee of three conferences (MAGNET, SuperFOx, Cimtec), he has been the chair of the first
edition of SuperFOx held in Como in June 2012. Referee of prestigious journals (Nature Nanotechnology,
Phys. Rev.Lett., Appl. Phys Lett, Phys. Review B).
He gives annual courses of classical physics, an advanced course on "Magnetic nanostructures" at
Politecnico di Milano and lectures in PhD schools. Appointed as Member of the Examining Committees for
Phd Thesis at Politecnico di Milano, Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.
EDUCATION
1994 February, Doctor degree in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano (100/100 e Lode); thesis
on correlated systems by inverse photoemission.
1994 April, he takes the Qualification Exam for the engineer profession.
1997 January; beginning of PhD courses at the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano. Research
area: magnetic thin films investigated by spin resolved electron spectroscopy.
2000 February: PhD in Physics.
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
1994 February - July; he works in the research and development group of BTicino, in Varese as electronic
engineer.
1994 September; beginning of two years in Cameroun (till September 1996), working in a Social Centre as
a Volunteer for the Ministero Degli Affari Esteri Italiano.
1996 October; four months fellow at the Surface Physics Laboratories of Politecnico di Milano.
1998 December: 1 year fellow ("Assegno di ricerca") for research in the field of Electron Spectroscopy
from Magnetic Surfaces at the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano.
1999 November: permanent position (assistant professor) at the Physics Department of Politecnico di
Milano.
2001 May - August: 3 months at the UMR137 CNRS-Thales (Paris), working on Pulsed Laser Deposition
of thin films and characterization by XPS in the group of A. Fert, Nobel prize for Physiscs 2007.
2003 April: transfer of a new experimental apparatus for the growth and characterization of Layered
Structures for Spin Electronics in the laboratory "Centro Interuniversitario L-NESS" in Como.
2004 May: qualification as Associate Professor of Physics
2005 March: appointment as Associated Professor at the Politecnico di Milano
2005 July: invited professor at the LMOV, CNRS-Université de Versailles (France)
RESEARCH ACTIVITY and KEY PUBLICATIONS
The research activity of R. Bertacco can be divided in four periods, corresponding to different topics:
1992-93 Electron Spectroscopies on strongly correlated systems. L. Duò, P. Vavassori, R. Bertacco,
"Effects of Ce vs. Lu substitution on the electronic structure of rare earth-transition metal
compounds"; Journal of Alloys and Compounds 225 (1995) 432-435.
1996-00 Spin Polarized electron spectroscopies from surfaces and thin solid films. During the PhD he
developed a spin polarimeter which is still the most efficient instrument used worldwide in surface
science. R. Bertacco et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 72 (16), 2050 (1998). F. Bisio, R. Moroni, M. Canepa,
L. Mattera, R. Bertacco, F. Ciccacci, , Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4868 (1999).
2001-07 Growth and characterization of heterostructures for spin electronics. The major achievements
were related to the introduction of spin polarized electron spectroscopy to understand
spindependent transport in spintronic devices. M. Bowen, A. Barthélémy, M. Bibes, E. Jacquet, J.P. Contour, A. Fert, F. Ciccacci, L. Duò, and R. Bertacco, , Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 137203 (2005)
2008-14 Realization of spintronic devices and magnetic biochips.
The major achievements in the field of spintronics has been the demonstration of Ge based spinphotodiodes operating at room-temperature, which still present the highest efficiency never
reported (C. Rinaldi, M. Cantoni, D. Petti, A. Sottocorno, M. Leone, N. M. Caffrey, S. Sanvito and
R. Bertacco, Adv. Mat. 24, 3037 (2012)), the first demonstration of a spintronic memory device
based only on antiferromagnets (D. Petti, E. Albisetti, H. Reichlova, J. Gazquez, M. Varela, M.
Molina-Ruiz, A. F. Lopeandıa, K. Olejnık, V. Novak, I. Fina, B. Dkhil, J. Hayakawa, X. Marti, J.
Wunderlich, T. Jungwirth, and R. Bertacco, “Storing magnetic information in IrMn/MgO/Ta tunnel
junctions via field-cooling”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 192404 (2013)), the discovery of a new class of
ferroelctric semiconductor materials displaying Rashba effect (Di Sante, D., Barone, P., Bertacco,
R. and Picozzi, S., “Electric Control of the Giant Rashba Effect in Bulk GeTe”, Advanced
Materials 25 (4), 509-513 (2013)) and the demonstration of a pure electrical switching mechanism
of magnetic order at the interface between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials (G. Radaelli,
D. Petti, E. Plekhanov, I. Fina, B. R. Salles, M. Can- toni, C. Rinaldi, D. Gutiérrez, G. Panaccione,
M. Varela, S. Picozzi, J. Fontcuberta and R. Bertacco, Electrical on-off switching of magnetism at
the Fe/BaTiO3 interface, NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 10.1038/ncomms4404 (2014)) .
The major achievement in the field of magnetic biochips has been the invention of a novel
technology for on-chip manipulation of individual magnetic particles via domain wall conduits,
which is at present the most efficient solution for magnetophoresis on chip. M. Donolato, P.
Vavassori, M. Gobbi, M. Deryabina, M. F. Hansen, V. Metlushko, B. Ilic, M. Cantoni, D. Petti, S.
Brivio and R. Bertacco, Adv. Mater. 22, 2706 (2010)
The gap between the end of 1993 and the end of 1996 corresponds to the period in BTicino as electronic
engineer (6 months) and to the two years in Cameroun as volunteer in a social program granted by Ministero
degli Affari Esteri.
Starting from a background on electron spectroscopy and surface magnetism he gradually moved towards the
field of spintronics and more recently, to nanobiotechnologies. In this evolution two fundamental events
have been a research period in the laboratory of Albert. Fert (Nobel Prize for Physics) in 2001 and the visit
in the nanomedicine group of Mauro Ferrari (Health Science Center of Houston) in 2007. The research
activity of R. Bertacco is nowadays devoted to the investigation of fundamental spintronics (semiconductor
spintronics, magnetoelectric coupling, antiferromagnets spintronics) and to the applications of magnetism to
biology and medicine (magnetic biosensing and manipulation of biological entities via domain wall
conduits).
RUNNING GRANTED PROJECTS
Project
Innovative platform based on analytical systems for the rapid detection of bacterial and
viral contamination in agrifood applications- LOCSENS" (MIUR- Regione
Lombardia, total grant 1.553.000 €, NaBiS grant 208.000 € )
ESCHILO - Early Stage Cancer diagnosys via HIghly sensitive Lab-On-chip
multitarget systems (MIUR-Regione Lombardia – NaBiS grant 150.000 €)
SEARCH IV - Spin optoElectronics ARCHitectures based on group IV compunds
((Cariplo Foundation, 50 k€)
Magnetic Information Storage in Antiferromagnetic Spintronic Devices – MAGISTER
Period
2012-2014
2013-2015
2014-2017
2014-2017
(Cariplo Foundation, 175 k€)
Ultrasensitive Magnetic Array for recording of Neuronal Activity – UMANA (Cariplo
Foundation, 160 k€)
2014-2017
10-Year track-record RICCARDO BERTACCO
10 representative publications as senior author during last 10 years.
1. M. Bowen, A. Barthélémy, M. Bibes, E. Jacquet, J.-P. Contour, A. Fert, F. Ciccacci, L. Duò, and R.
Bertacco, “Spin-polarised tunneling spectroscopy in tunnel junctions with half-metallic electrodes”, Phys.
Rev. Lett. 95, 137203 (2005)
2. U. Lüders, M. Bibes, J. –F. Bobo, M. Cantoni, R. Bertacco, and J. Fontcuberta, “Enhanced magnetic
moment and conductive behavior in NiFe2O4 spinel ultrathin films”, Phys. Rev. B 71, 134419 (2005)
3. P. Vavassori,V. Metlushko, B. Ilic, M. Gobbi, M. Donolato, M. Cantoni, and R. Bertacco, “Domain wall
displacement in Py square ring for single nanometric magnetic bead detection”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 93,
203502 (2008)
4. M. Donolato, P. Vavassori, M. Gobbi, M. Deryabina, M. F. Hansen, V. Metlushko, B. Ilic, M. Cantoni, D.
Petti, S. Brivio and R. Bertacco, “On-chip manipulation of protein coated magnetic beads via domain walls
5. M.Donolato, A.Torti, E.Sogne, N.Kostesha, M.Deryabina, P.Vavassori, M.F.Hansen and R. Bertacco,
“Magnetic domain wall conduits for single cell applications”, Lab Chip 11, 2976-2983 (2011)
6. C. Rinaldi, M. Cantoni, D. Petti, A. Sottocorno, M. Leone, N. M. Caffrey, S. Sanvito and R. Bertacco,
“Ge-based spin-photodiodes for room temperature integrated detection of photons helicity”, Adv. Mat. 24,
3037 (2012).
7. Manuel Pernia Leal, Andrea Torti, Andreas Riedinger, Rocco La Fleur, Daniela Petti, Roberto Cingolani,
Riccardo Bertacco, and Teresa Pellegrino, “Controlled release of doxorubicin loaded within magnetic
thermo-responsive nanocarriers under magnetic and thermal actuation in a microfluidic channel”, ACS
Nano, 6(12),10535-45 (2012)
8. E. Albisetti, D. Petti, M. Cantoni, F. Damin, A. Torti, M. Chiari, R. Bertacco, “Conditions for efficient onchip magnetic bead detection via magnetoresistive sensors”, Biosensors and Bioelectronics 47 (2013) 213–
217 (2013)
9. Di Sante, D., Barone, P., Bertacco, R. and Picozzi, S., “Electric Control of the Giant Rashba Effect in Bulk
GeTe”, Advanced Materials 25 (4), 509-513 (2013)
10. G. Radaelli, D. Petti, E. Plekhanov, I. Fina, B. R. Salles, M. Cantoni, C. Rinaldi, D. Gutiérrez, G.
Panaccione, M. Varela, S. Picozzi, J. Fontcuberta and R. Bertacco, “Electrical on-off switching of magnetism
at the Fe/BaTiO3 interface”, NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 10.1038/ncomms4404 (2014)
Chapter of books
R. Bertacco and F. Ciccacci, “Oxide films in spintronics” in "Oxide ultrathin films: science and technology",
edited by Pacchioni, Gianfranco ; Valeri, Sergio ISBN-13: 9783527330164; ISBN-10: 352733016X; Pub.
Date: 2011; Publisher: WILEY-VCH
Granted patents
1. BERTACCO R., P. VAVASSORI (2009). “Spintronic biosensors with active area localized on a
magnetic domain wall”. EP2274633 (2009), Politecnico di Milano.
2. BERTACCO R., M. DONOLATO, M. GOBBI, M. CANTONI, S. BRIVIO, D. PETTI, P. VAVASSORI
(2009). “Manipulation of magnetic particles in conduits for the propagation of domain walls”,
PCT/EP2010/000879 (2010), nanoGune Consolider
Invited presentations during last 5 years
1. “GeTe: a prototypical ferroelectric Rashba semiconductor”, MRS Spring meeting, San Francisco (21-25
April 2014)
“Magnetic particles manipulation and detection at the nanoscale: novel tools for biology and medicine”,
Nanomedicine Seminar Series@Politecnico di Milano, Milano (24 October 2013)
3. “Magnetic particles manipulation and detection at the nanoscale: novel tools for biology and medicine”,
MIME (Materials in medicine), Faenza (9-11, October 2013)
4. “Inverse magnetoelectric effects at ferromagnet-ferroelectric interfaces”, Fismat 2013, Milano (9-13,
September 2013)
5. “Magnetic nanostructures for on-chip manipulation of biological entities and biosensing”,
NanotechItaly2012, Mestre, November 2012
6. “Spintronics for photonics, information storage and biological applications”, Bilateral workshop on
nanostructured materials for magnetic and spintronic devices, Canberra, November 2012
7. “Spin photodiodes for SiGe spin-optoelectronics”, SPIE 2012, San Diego (CA), August 2012
8. “Magnetoelectric coupling at the Fe/BaTiO3 interface”, Spintronics meeting in Lanna, Prague, June
2012
9. Italian School of Magnetism organized by the “AIMagn - Società Italiana di Magnetismo”, Pavia,
February 2012
10. “On chip manipulation of biological entities carried by magnetic beads via domain wall conduits”,
ICSM 2010, Antalya (Turkey), April 2010.
11. “Magnetic nanostructures for on-chip manipulation of biological entities and biosensing”, ROCHE
Diagnostics GmbH, Penzberg (Germany), September 2011. Host: Dr. Renate Horcher
2.
Organization of International conferences
Member of the scientific committee of three conferences (MAGNET, SuperFOx, Cimtec), he has been the
chair of the first edition of the conference SuperFOx (Superconductivity and Functional Oxides) held in
Como in June 2012.
Memberships
AIMagn - Società Italiana di Magnetismo, IEEE