In contrast to other main group elements, group VI elements are rarely observed to form long linear polymer main chains. We reported the synthesis and characterizations of polytelluroxane, a polymer with an inorganic backbone constituted of tellurium and oxygen, which may bridge the gap between inorganic oxides and macromolecules. Because of its unique molecular structure, polytelluroxane is a transparent ultraviolet protection optical material and reveals a photocatalytic activity comparable with commercial catalysts. Te, excluding noble gases (Xe, Rn) and radioactive elements (At), exhibits the highest absorption of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, therefore polytelluroxane act as the ideal formulation for EUV photoresist. Moreover, polytelluroxane exhibited effective closed-loop recyclability with a recycle efficiency around 90% and a recycle number over 10. This work provided a prospective candidate for the development of flexible polymer devices and sustainable functional materials.

The ability to design and fabricate advanced nanostructured materials is crucial for the development of emerging technologies in areas such as energy, optoelectronics, microelectronics, and sensing. Among the physical fabrication approaches, laser-based methodologies, particularly Pulsed laser Deposition (PLD), offer unique advantages in terms of flexibility, precision and material versatility, enabling the synthesis of a wide range of materials, from metals and oxides to structurally complex systems.

In this talk, I will present highlights of my research activities, focusing on the fabrication of nanostructured materials using PLD, and on the study of the optical properties of novel semiconducting systems based on ZnO, g-C₃N₄ etc. targeting to sensing applications.

Disordered systems subject to a fluctuating environment can self-organize into a complex history-dependent response, retaining a memory of the driving. In sheared amorphous solids, self-organization is established by the emergence of a persistent system of mechanical instabilities that can repeatedly be triggered by the driving, leading to a state of high mechanical reversibility. As a result, the response of the system becomes correlated with the dynamics of its environment. These correlations furnish a mechanism by which a system can sense and respond to its environment. They emerge across a wide variety of soft matter systems, suggesting that this form of self-organization is generic and hence  may depend very little on the underlying specifics

 In this talk I will first review self-organization in driven amorphous solids, and then turn to a discussion of what self-organization in driven disordered systems can teach us about how simple organisms lacking a brain, such as bacteria, can sense and adapt to their changing environment.