1. Niccoló Scopigno
Curriculum Vitae
Piazzale Aldo Moro 5
00185 Roma, Italy
H (+39) 347 86 33 306
B nicco.scopigno@gmail.com
Education
2013 Ph.D., Universitá di Roma "Sapienza".
Supervisors: Prof. Marco Grilli, Prof. Sergio Caprara
2011–2013 M.Sc, Universitá di Roma "Sapienza", 110/110 cum laude.
Supervisors of the thesis: Prof. Marco Grilli, Prof. Sergio Caprara
2008–2011 B.Sc., Universitá di Roma "Sapienza", 110/110 cum laude.
Supervisor: Prof. Angelo Vulpiani
2003–2008 High school, Scientific studies, Liceo "C. Jucci" di Rieti, 100/100 cum laude.
Masters Thesis
Title Interface confinement and phase separation instability in the electron gas of oxide
heterostructures
Supervisors Professor Marco Grilli & Professor Sergio Caprara
Description Oxide heterostructures are of great interest both for fundamental and applicative
reasons. In particular the two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 or
LaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces displays many different physical properties and functional-
ities. There are clear indications that this electronic state is strongly inhomogeneous.
In my work of thesis we investigate two possible intrinsic mechanisms underlying
this inhomogeneity, based on the electrostatic potential confining the electron gas
at the interface and a density-dependent Rashba Spin Orbit coupling generated
by inversion symmetry breaking. We find that these mechanisms, which are both
present at the interface, may induce phase separation to avoid a thermodynamically
unstable state with a negative compressibility. This provides a generic robust and
intrinsic mechanism for the experimentally observed inhomogeneous character of
these interfaces.
Bachelor Thesis
Title Normal and anomalous diffusion
Supervisors Professor Angelo Vulpiani
Description We study the diffusive behavior, mostly focusing on the anomalous one, of two
different classical systems: the Taylor’s shear flow (Langevin equation of a 2D
confined velocity field) and the Chirikov standard map. Although they are basically
different, one is a pure stochastic system while the other is Hamiltonian, strong
analogies between them are shown.

2. Awards
2008-2011 SIF national scholarship "Progetto Lauree Scientifiche"
Publications
M. A. Safeen, M. M. Can, A. Khare, E. Di Gennaro, A. Sambri, U. Scotti di Uccio,
F. M. Granozio, N. Scopigno, “ Non-volatile, reversible metal-insulator transition in
oxide interfaces controlled by gate voltage and light”, to be submitted to PRX;
N. Scopigno, D. Bucheli, S. Caprara, J. Biscaras, N. Bergeal, J. Lesueur,and M.
Grilli, “ Phase separation from electron confinement at oxide interfaces”, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 116, 026804 (2016);
S. Hurand, J. Biscaras, N. Bergeal, C. Feuillet-Palma, G. Singh, A. Jouan, A. Rastogi,
A. Dogra, P. Kumar, R. C. Budhani, N. Scopigno, S. Caprara, M. Grilli, J. Lesueur,
“Density driven fluctuations in a two-dimensional superconductor”, arXiv:1506.06874
S. Caprara, D. Bucheli, N. Scopigno, N. Bergeal, J. Biscaras, S. Hurand, J. Lesueur,
and M. Grilli, “Inhomogeneous multi carrier superconductivity at LaXO3/SrTiO3
oxide interfaces”, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 28, 014002 (2015)
N. Bovenzi, F. Finocchiaro, N. Scopigno, D. Bucheli, S. Caprara, G. Seibold, M.
Grilli, “Possible Mechanisms of Electronic Phase Separation in Oxide Interfaces”, J.
Supercond. Nov. Magn. (2015) 28:1273-1277
Conferences, Schools and Meetings attended
2016 TOP-SPIN 2, May 26th-27th, Groningen, Netherlands.
Workshop on topological and spin phenomena in advanced nanostructures and materials
(oral and poster contribution).
2016 TO-BE Spring Meetin 2016, April 6th-8th, Warwick, UK.
Workshop on transition metal oxides (poster contribution).
2015 Ugo Fano Prize Symposium, December 16th-19th, Roma, Italy.
2015 Trendoxides2015, November 12th-18th, Brescia, Italy.
School and workshop on correlated oxides and interfaces (poster contribution).
2015 101◦ National Congress of the Italian Physical Society, September 21st-
25th, Roma, Italy.
2015 Prospects in Theoretical Physics 2015, November 12th-18th, Princeton Uni-
versity, USA.
Princeton Summer School on aspects of quantum field theory that are of interest to high
energy and condensed matter physicists.
2015 Computer simulations for condensed phase systems, May 4th-6th, Roma,
Italy.
Workshop on correlated electrons and novel materials (poster contribution).
2015 Magnet 2015, February 17th-19th, Bologna, Italy.
Italian conference of magnetism (poster contribution).

3. 2015 The Mathematics of Topological Insulators in Naples, February 2nd-5th,
Napoli, Italy.
School on topological insulators.
2014 SuperFox, September 24th-26th, Roma, Italy.
II Conference on Superconductivity and Functional Oxides
2014 New frontiers for Majorana fermions from condensed to dark matter, May
5th-6th, Frascati, Italy.
Workshop on Majorana fermions in several fields, ranging from Condensed Matter to High
Energy Physics.
General research interest
My field of research concerns theoretical problems connected to the physics of electronic phase
separation and superconductivity in oxide interfaces and Majorana fermions in disordered interacting
quantum wires.
During my master thesis I studied the cooperation between electron confinement and Rashba
Spin-Orbit coupling (RSOC) on the two-dimensional (2D) metallic state at the interface of two
insulating oxides, such as LaAlO3/SrTiO3 and LaTiO3/SrTiO3 (LXO/STO). Several evidences
bring to light the presence of charge inhomogeneities in this high-mobility electron gas, which in
turn affect strongly the properties of the gas. There are indications that these inhomogeneities
cannot be explained only by defects or impurities. Our group proposed an intrinsic mechanism based
on an effective attraction mediated by RSOC and/or the confining potential at the interface. My
work have been focused on developing a numerical procedure to calculate the chemical potential
of a finite-width electron gas confined in a self-consistent potential well in the presence of RSOC.
Calculations revealed that the quantization of the motion perpendicular to the interface favors phase
separation, as a result of the interplay between the Rashba band bending and the lowering of the
levels in the potential well.
This topic has been subjected to further investigation during the first year of my Ph.D., when we
improved the calculation to have a more realistic picture of LXO/STO interfaces, including multiple
bands and more physical boundary conditions. We found out that both RSOC and electrostatic
confinement not only provide an intrinsic mechanism for the inhomogeneity, but also open the way
to new interpretations of the observed quantum critical behavior of superconductivity in LXO/STO.
During this work I also had the possibility to collaborate with an experimental group at ESPCI in
Paris, who performed transport and capacitive measurements on LXO/STO samples.
Currently I am exploring some aspects of the behavior of Majorana fermions in disordered and
interacting quantum wires with Rashba Spin Orbit Coupling.
I think it is a really stimulating issue since it offers the possibility to see a lot of physical mechanisms
at work, which can be studied using both simple toy models and advanced techniques (topological
field theory, renormalization group, random matrix theory etc.).
As a side work of my Ph.D. thesis there is also the study of inhomogeneous superconductivity in
two-dimensional systems and their quantum critical behavior.
The main topics of my work can be summarized as
{ Electronic phase separation and inhomogeneous superconductivity in oxide interfaces

4. { Majorana fermions in disordered interacting quantum wires
{ Quantum criticality
Personal skills and competences
Computer skills
Basic MathematicaTM, OpenMP
Intermediate C
Advanced FORTRAN 95, Linux, Bash scripting
Languages
Italian Mothertongue
English Intermediate Conversationally fluent
French Basic Good reading skills
References
Prof. Marco Grilli
Department of Physics
Universita’ di Roma "La Sapienza"
Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5
00185 - Roma, Italy
B marco.grilli@roma1.infn.it
T +390649914341
Prof. Sergio Caprara
Department of Physics
Universita’ di Roma "La Sapienza"
Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5
00185 - Roma, Italy
B sergio.caprara@roma1.infn.it
T +390649914294
Dr. Lara Benfatto
Department of Physics and ISC-CNR
Universita’ di Roma "La Sapienza"
Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5
00185 - Roma, Italy
B lara.benfatto@roma1.infn.it
T +390649914408