Research

My primary interests are space plasma instrumentation and carbon foils for space applications. I design and develop sensors that measure either ions (solar wind, suprathermal ions, and solar energetic particles), energetic neutral atoms (magnetosphere, termination shock), or electrons (Jupiter). I model several sensors such as IBEX-Hi on IBEX, PLASTIC on STEREO, TWINS, SWAP on New Horizons, and JADE-E on JUNO. In addition to these sensors, I also work on new concepts and designs for future missions. Sensors are eventually tested and fully characterized in a vacuum chamber with ion beam, which represents another interesting part of my work.

Ultra-thin (~10 nm) carbon foils are used extensively in space plasma spectrometers for generation of a coincidence measurement via secondary electron emission in time-of-flight mass spectrometers or charge conversion of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) in ENA imagers. An ion or neutral atom passing through the carbon foil also experiences energy loss and straggling and angular scattering. Measurement and quantification of all these effects is also part of my interest for sensor modeling.

Teaching

I have just joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTSA as an Adjoint Assistant Professor. During my undergraduate studies I taught a physics lab for undergraduate medical students at the University of Lausanne from 1996 to 1998. Similarly, during my graduate years, I taught a physics lab for undergraduate medical and veterinary students at the University of Bern from 1999 to 2002.

Selected Papers

• F. Allegrini, N. A. Schwadron, D. J. McComas, G. Gloeckler, and J. Geiss, Stability of the inner source pickup ions over the solar cycle, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 110, No. A5, A05105 (2005). [Abstract]
• D. J. McComas, F. Allegrini, C.J. Pollock, H.O. Funsten, S. Ritzau, and G. Gloeckler, Ultra-thin (~10 nm) carbon foils in space instrumentation, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75 (11), pp. 4863-4870 (2004). [Abstract]
• G. Gloeckler, F. Allegrini, H. A. Elliott, D. J. McComas, N. A. Schwadron, J. Geiss and R. von Steiger, and G. H. Jones, Cometary Ions Trapped in a Coronal Mass Ejection, Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 604, Issue 2, L121-L124 (2004). [Abstract]
• F. Allegrini, R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, P. Wurz, and P. Bochsler, Determination of low-energy ion-induced electron yields from thin carbon foils, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 211, 487-494 (2003). [Abstract]
   

Last update: Tuesday January 31, 2006