The Lecco branch of IFN-CNR focus its basic research and technological innovation in the field of photonics for Health, Living Environments and Quantum Technologies. On the basis of a complex network involving research institutions, academia, clinics and industry that has no equal in the Italian panorama, the Lecco unit works in synergy with other 5 CNR institutes that are located in the same building (ICMATE, STIIMA, IPCB, IBFM, INO), with the Politecnico di Milano (based in the same research area) and with the particularly rich clinical and industrial reality of the territory. There are three main research lines carried out in cooperation with these external subjects:

• CW lasers and frequency comb with emission in the near and medium infrared used for the realization of sensors of chemical species in the gaseous phase, such as pollutants, greenhouse gases and also bio-markers of physiological parameters;
• picosecond pulsed lasers in the visible and near infrared used for functional monitoring studies of hemodynamics both in the muscle tissue and in the brain, with high spatial resolution related to the short duration of the light pulses;
• femtosecond lasers in the near infrared used in 3D writing processes of integrated photonic circuits in transparent materials and ‘cold’ ablation, i.e. the removal of material without deformation of the surrounding material, with micrometric resolution, for the realization of lab-on-chips, for surface nano-structuring, for the prototyping of sources and quantum computing and sensing channels.

These activities are complemented by a basic research activity in the field of both precision molecular spectroscopy and photo-thermal microscopy aimed at tumor diagnostics.