About

Alessandro Alabastri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. He specializes in nanophotonics and computational modeling of photo-thermal interactions in complex nanostructures. His research focuses on light-to-heat conversion mechanisms, aiming to maximize heat dissipation in nanoparticle-based systems. Dr. Alabastri has developed predictive models for energy-conversion systems, including Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission devices in collaboration with the European Space Agency, and Nanophotonics Enabled Solar Membrane Distillation modules at Rice University. He received his BSc and MSc in Engineering Physics from Politecnico di Milano, with specialization in Nano-Optics and Photonics. His Master’s project was completed at the Technical University of Denmark, working on the optical characterization of metamaterials. He earned his PhD in Nanosciences from the Italian Institute of Technology and University of Genoa, focusing on computational modeling of plasmonic structures. His professional experience includes a visiting research position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and postdoctoral fellowships at Rice University, where he worked on theoretical nanophotonics and solar distillation devices. In 2020, he was promoted to a tenure-track assistant professor position at Rice University. Dr. Alabastri has been recognized with several honors, including the Texas Instruments Research Professorship from Rice University in 2018 and the NEWT Postdoctoral Leadership Fellowship in 2016.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Optoelectronics
• Physics
• Nanotechnology
• Chemistry
• Thermodynamics
• Quantum mechanics
• Environmental engineering
• Metallurgy
• Chromatography
• Composite material
• Electrical engineering
• Environmental science
• Engineering
• Nuclear engineering

Selected publications

• Optimizing Plasmonic Photocatalysis by Controlling the Temporal Distribution of Incident Photons

  ACS Catalysis · 2026-04-24

  articleCorresponding

  Of central interest in plasmonic photocatalysis is efficiency, defined as the ratio of the rate of chemical transformation to the power of the incident light. Efforts to enhance efficiency have focused largely on optimizing the photocatalyst structure and composition, reaction conditions, and reactor design. Here, we show that the temporal distribution of incident photons is another parameter that can be used to optimize efficiency. We illustrate the concept by varying the repetition rate of incident laser light pulses. By increasing the repetition rate from 13 to 78 MHz while keeping both the total photon flux and temperature constant, we observe a 7-fold increase in external quantum efficiency for ammonia decomposition. An increase of up to 20-fold in the reaction rate per pulse for pulses of identical energy but shorter time delay between pulses is also observed, revealing nonlinearities in the photocatalytic process. Our findings broaden the approaches for light delivery in photocatalysis, offering insight into how photocatalytic efficiency can be maximized for a fixed incident light energy and expanding current concepts for dynamic control in plasmon-driven chemistry.

  PublisherDOI

• Gold Nanoparticle Cluster-Integrated Flexible Polymeric Membranes for Advanced Biomedical Sensing Applications

  Lecture notes in electrical engineering · 2026-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Graduate Training in Quantum Information Science and Engineering: Lessons, Challenges, and a Roadmap from the NSF Research Traineeship Programs

  ArXiv.org · 2026-05-08

  articleOpen access

  Since 2019, eighteen NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) awards in quantum information science and engineering (QISE) and adjacent fields have been funded, constituting the largest NSF-coordinated investment in graduate QISE training in the United States. Synthesizing lessons from our programs, we work through the central tensions that every QISE graduate program must negotiate: between depth in a home discipline and breadth across the field, between structured instruction and open-ended experiential and hands-on learning, and between training individual specialists and cultivating teams that collectively cover all areas of QISE. We describe the structural and pedagogical innovations the NRT programs have developed in response, assess what is working and what remains unresolved, and sketch 12 open problems the community will need to address as QISE graduate education scales beyond the well-resourced research universities where it has up till now been mainly concentrated. Eight concrete recommendations follow: (1) adopt the startup model of team-based training as an organizing philosophy; (2) invest immediately in sensing and communication curriculum development; (3) build student agency into program governance, not just activities; (4) establish structural mechanisms for industrial engagement rather than depending on goodwill; (5) design for sustainability from year one; (6) develop graduate-level textbooks spanning all three QISE pillars: computing, sensing, and communications; (7) establish shared outcome assessment instruments across programs; and (8) develop structured mechanisms for faculty professional development in QISE.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Noise Management of Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Using Two-Dimensional Materials

  ACS Sensors · 2026-03-11 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) offers high sensitivity for biomolecular detection, but its performance is often constrained by noise arising from signal non-uniformity across substrates. Here, we introduce a noise-management−oriented design strategy for hybrid SERS substrates composed of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) and two-dimensional (2D) materials (graphene, MoS2, and WSe2). Compared with conventional AuNP substrates, the hybrids exhibit markedly improved spectral uniformity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), with the AuNP/graphene platform reducing noise by ∼67% and increasing SNR by ∼279%. Full-wave simulations based on Maxwell’s equations corroborated the experimental results and reveal that optical constants of the 2D material and nanoparticle distribution jointly govern noise characteristics. SNR dependence on nanoparticle density distributions, refractive index (n), and extinction coefficient (k) is further established. As a practical demonstration, the AuNP/graphene substrate enabled detection of the receptor binding domain protein at a limit of detection (LOD) of 10−9 M, representing a ten-fold improvement over the 10−8 M LOD of AuNP substrates. These results establish AuNP/2D hybrids as effective platforms for noise-managed SERS, offering enhanced sensitivity for biosensing.

  PublisherDOI

• Roadmap on Solar Energy Plasmonics

  Nano Futures · 2026-04-23

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Plasmonic nanostructures manipulate light at dimensions much smaller than wavelength, leading to strong electromagnetic field confinement, enhanced light absorption and efficient photocarrier generation. This makes them promising components for future solar energy conversion systems. This Roadmap surveys recent advances and future directions in the application of plasmonic principles to solar energy technologies across nine topical areas. Key themes include the plasmonic enhancement of light harvesting in perovskite solar cells; thermoplasmonic conversion of solar photons into localized heat for chemical transformation; and plasmonic photocatalysis for selective CO₂ reduction and hydrogen evolution. The collection also covers hybrid and ternary plasmonic–semiconductor–MOF architectures, S-scheme chalcogenides for water splitting, mechanistic studies of non-thermal and hot-carrier processes, and advanced electromagnetic and quantum–mechanical modelling of nanoplasmonic systems. Together, these contributions delineate the current state of plasmonic solar energy research and current and future challenges. Throughout the roadmap enhancements are attributed to solar-excited plasmonic mechanisms (hot-carrier transfer, photothermal effects, near-field enhancements, etc). However, the contribution of each mechanism to enhancement is not well understood or easily quantifiable. A key challenge, therefore, is to fully quantify the contribution of each plasmonic mechanism, using both experimental techniques and material modelling, to enable the optimized design of plasmonic platforms. Further challenges relate to the chemical stability of the metals currently used as plasmonic materials, and their high cost. The use of non-metal shells around metal nanoparticles is seen as a promising way to overcome stability issues, while conductive transition metal nitrides are identified as attractive low-cost, chemically stable alternatives to noble metals in the visual-NIR spectrum. Finally, scalable nanofabrication techniques are required to produce efficient, durable, and economically viable plasmonic platforms for sustainable solar fuel and power generation.

  PublisherDOI

• Realization of a chiral photonic-crystal cavity with broken time-reversal symmetry

  Nature Communications · 2026-05-23

  articleOpen access

  Chiral cavities offer an intriguing way to manipulate material properties by breaking fundamental symmetries. However, only a few chiral cavity implementations exhibiting broken time-reversal symmetry have been demonstrated, with most relying on either strong magnetic fields, circularly polarized Floquet driving, or ultrastrong coupling between cavity modes and matter excitations. Here, we present a one-dimensional terahertz photonic-crystal cavity that exhibits broken time-reversal symmetry. The cavity consists of a silicon wafer sandwiched between InSb wafers. By exploiting the nonreciprocal terahertz response of a magnetoplasma and the low electron effective mass in InSb, a circularly polarized cavity mode at 0.67 THz under a modest magnetic field of 0.3 T, with a quality factor exceeding 50 is realized. Temperature-, magnetic field-, and polarization-dependent measurements and simulations demonstrate the chiral cavity with broken time-reversal symmetry, providing a robust platform for exploring chiral light–matter interactions and vacuum dressed quantum condensed matter in the terahertz regime. Researchers realized the first truly chiral terahertz cavity with time-reversal-symmetry broken vacuum fields, with near-unity ellipticity at 0.66 THz and Q>50 under a 0.3 T field, offering a robust platform for chiral light–matter interactions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Graduate Training in Quantum Information Science and Engineering: Lessons, Challenges, and a Roadmap from the NSF Research Traineeship Programs

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-05-08

  preprintOpen access

  Since 2019, eighteen NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) awards in quantum information science and engineering (QISE) and adjacent fields have been funded, constituting the largest NSF-coordinated investment in graduate QISE training in the United States. Synthesizing lessons from our programs, we work through the central tensions that every QISE graduate program must negotiate: between depth in a home discipline and breadth across the field, between structured instruction and open-ended experiential and hands-on learning, and between training individual specialists and cultivating teams that collectively cover all areas of QISE. We describe the structural and pedagogical innovations the NRT programs have developed in response, assess what is working and what remains unresolved, and sketch 12 open problems the community will need to address as QISE graduate education scales beyond the well-resourced research universities where it has up till now been mainly concentrated. Eight concrete recommendations follow: (1) adopt the startup model of team-based training as an organizing philosophy; (2) invest immediately in sensing and communication curriculum development; (3) build student agency into program governance, not just activities; (4) establish structural mechanisms for industrial engagement rather than depending on goodwill; (5) design for sustainability from year one; (6) develop graduate-level textbooks spanning all three QISE pillars: computing, sensing, and communications; (7) establish shared outcome assessment instruments across programs; and (8) develop structured mechanisms for faculty professional development in QISE.

  PublisherDOI

• Electron-Phonon Temperature Inversion in Nanostructures under Pulsed Photoexcitation

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025-01-05

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Photoexcitation of metallic nanostructures with short optical pulses can drive non-thermal electronic states, which, upon decay, lead to elevated electronic temperatures ($T_e \gtrapprox 1000\,\mathrm{K}$) eventually equilibrating with the lattice ($T_p$) through electron-phonon scattering. Here, we show that, in spatially extended nanostructures, the lattice temperature can locally exceed that of the electrons, a seemingly counterintuitive transient effect termed hereafter ``temperature inversion'' ($T_p > T_e$). This phenomenon, fundamentally due to inhomogeneous absorption patterns and absent in smaller particles, emerges from a complex spatio-temporal interplay, between the electron-phonon coupling and competing electronic thermal diffusion. By combining rigorous three-dimensional (3D) finite-element-method-based simulations with practical reduced zero-dimensional (0D) analytical models, we identify the electron-phonon coupling coefficient ($G_{e-p}$) as the critical parameter governing this behavior. An optimal $G_{e-p}$ range allows the inversion, whereas a weak or overly strong coupling suppresses it. Among common plasmonic metals, platinum (Pt) exhibits the most pronounced and long-lived inversion, while gold (Au) and silver (Ag) show no significant inversion. Moreover, the close agreement between the 0D and 3D results, once an appropriate characteristic length is selected, highlights that the essential physics governing the inversion can be captured without full spatial complexity. These results provide insights for optimizing nanoscale energy transfer and hot-carrier-driven processes, guiding the strategic design of materials, geometries, and excitation conditions for enhanced ultrafast photothermal control.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Resonant energy transfer for membrane-free, off-grid solar thermal humidification–dehumidification desalination

  Nature Water · 2025-05-14 · 9 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• <i>(Invited)</i> Light-Induced Nonlinearities Drive Plasmonic Photothermal Catalysis Under Pulsed Illumination

  ECS Meeting Abstracts · 2025-11-24

  article

  Photocatalysis with plasmonic nanostructures has established itself as a transformative paradigm to drive chemical reactions using light. At the surface of metallic nanoparticles, photoexcitation results in strong near fields, short-lived high-energy ‘hot’ carriers, and light-induced heating. This creates a local environment where reactions occur along thermal and nonthermal pathways with enhanced efficiency, in significantly milder conditions compared to conventional catalysis. Despite exceptional promises, the typical nano-reactors operate under continuous wave illumination, which inherently restricts rates, selectivity, and efficiency of the reactions. The use of pulsed illumination has therefore emerged as an attractive solution, further bolstered by the proven advantages of solid-state lighting sources, such as LEDs, for exciting photocatalytic nanostructures. Optical pulses, featuring high peak intensities over timescales (sub-ps to ns) comparable to those of the reaction elementary step, can unlock nonlinear interactions which are out of reach in the steady-state, with the potential to modify substantially the reaction rates. In this framework, it is critical to understand the nonequilibrium processes triggered by light, both at the electronic and thermal level. In this talk, we will first introduce an original modeling approach to gauge with spatial, temporal, and energy resolution, the ultrafast energy exchange from plasmonic hot carriers to molecular systems adsorbed on the metal nanoparticle surface, while consistently accounting for photothermal bond activation. Our numerical analysis allows for disentangling the contributions arising from the carriers and the heated lattice, and it shows that rates can strongly benefit from pulsed illumination. We then combine modelling and photocatalytic measurements to explore the impact of pulsed illumination on a prototypical reaction (ammonia decomposition using CuRu antenna-reactors), by tuning the temporal distance and energy of the pulses. We report on a 20-fold increase in the reaction rate per pulse (energy efficiency and external quantum efficiency, normalised by the total number of pulses) upon doubling the pulse repetition rate in the 13 – 78 MHz range, for the same pulse peak intensity and photocatalyst steady-state temperature. To rationalise this remarkable trend, we develop a quantitative model for the transient photoinduced temperature increase, and propose a concurrent light-driven nonlinear mechanism modulating the effective activation energy of the reaction, to explain such a stark super-linear improvement in the rate of hydrogen production. Taken together, our results provide key elements to advance the use of ultrashort light pulses in photocatalysis, to drive chemical events with unprecedented efficiencies in the nonequilibrium regime, beyond the steady-state limits.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Bharat Bhushan

  750 shared

• Bradley J. Nelson

  ETH Zurich

  302 shared

• S. Siva Sankara Sai

  Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning

  283 shared

• Lixin Dong

  Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University

  273 shared

• Remo Proietti Zaccaria

  Italian Institute of Technology

  259 shared

• Li Zhang

  Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation

  204 shared

• Andréa Toma

  Italian Institute of Technology

  182 shared

• Francesco De Angelis

  176 shared

Awards & honors

• Texas Instrument Research Professorship from Rice University…
• Association of American Universities, University Innovation…
• I-Corps Program (2017)
• NEWT Postdoctoral Leadership Fellowship (2016)
• ARIADNA grant from ESA - European Space Agency (2014)