Perfetti

Between 1988 and 2008 ISM went through several phases with perspectives that have been enriched over time. The first concerned the large infrastructures, focused around Synchrotone Light (LdS) and Neutrons. It is great merit of ISM and his researchers to have been the first in Italy to use the LdS on a large scale for the study of the matter with different techniques, such as optical spectroscopy, photoemission spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The storage ring “ADONE” in Frascati, at first entirely dedicated to elementary particle experiments, was later modified with the creation of five lines of LdS upon which an entire generation of scientists was formed. These scientists have later implemented such activity in Italy and around the World. In the same time a valid activity in the field of Neutron Spectrometry was started, leading to the realization of the “PRISMA” Spectrometry at the laboratories ISIS in England.
The experience gained at Frascati saw ISM on the front line in the design and creation of the LdS laboratory “ELETTRA” in Trieste (1993). Several lines of light, that are still working at the moment, were created at that time. This allowed to obtain important scientific results in the fields of surface physics and interfaces, hybrid materials, magnetic nanostructural materials, low dimension materials and heterostructures of interest for the electronics.
Such activity had to be supported by an intensive internal research and the studies on angle-resolved photoemission, internal photoemission, optical spectroscopy, growth of thin films, diffraction and energy dispersion X-ray reflectometry, have become the main scientific themes that characterize ISM.
Another important development phase has seen ISM in the leading role in the field of local probe microscopy. In its laboratories were built the first Italian Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STM), Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) and Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy (SNOM). Several works have been published about surface studies, innovative materials and biological systems.
ISM faced a period of growth in 2003 thanks to the merger of the ICMAT Institute. This represented a choice towards interdisciplinarity that had the goal of combining the synthesis skills of new materials, proper to Chemistry, with the diagnostic skills of Physics. This disciplinary extension has enriched ISM with a valid line of theoretical research concerning surface modeling, defects and hybrid systems.
The spirit of ISM, as creator of large infrastructures, culminated with the SPARX Project (Sorgente Pulsata Autoamplificata di Radiazione X). Such ambitious project, created for the realization of a free-electron laser, started in 2002 in collaboration with INFN, ENEA, University of Tor Vergata and Regione Lazio and aimed to build a large laboratory in the area of Tor Vergata mainly focused on the analysis of ultra-fast phenomena (femto-physics and femto-chimics). Unfortunately the project was not realized because of the loss of one of the partners, but the preliminary studies were fundamental for the development of the free-electron laser at ELETTRA in Trieste.