Overview of the department
The department groups together 31 members. Their activities aim at enhancing the fundamental knowledge of condensed matter at the nanometer scale, and providing supports for the development of new materials or devices for electronics, photonics or information storage. The overall research activities of the department is organized around three research axes :
This research axis is interested in the non-conventional structural, dynamical and cooperative properties of complex molecular systems (aperiodic crystals, multicomponent fluids, liquid-crystals) induced by a highly anisotropy spatial restriction at the nanoscale. Unidirectional confinement is investigated in unimolecular channels of aperiodic guest-host architectures and composites nanomaterials obtained by impregnation of mesostructured porous solids.
Future electronics devices will be based on complex hybrid architectures integrating semiconducting, metallic, and molecular layers in a single stack. The activities of the surfaces and interfaces physics group are focused on the growth and characterization of such heterostructures. Specific efforts are devoted to the analysis of physical and chemical properties governing the surface and interfaces formation at the atomic scale. The correlations between these nanoscopic properties and the macroscopic behaviour of the final devices are finally investigated.
- Theory and Simulation (ThEoS)
The members of ThEoS are theorists who interact with experimentalists and use quantum & classical methods for their research activities: Multiple diffusion and spectroscopy, electronic, transport, correlated systems, photo-induced phase transition, fluids at interfaces.
Tools and means
The department relies on cutting-edge experimental, theoretical and numerical skills, coupling large-scale facilities (neutron sources and synchrotron radiation), on-site experiments (growth, advanced characterization, nanotechnologies) and numerical approaches (molecular modelling and ab initio calculations).
Scientific production
Overview of the latest publications most representative of the 3 research axes of the Materials-Nanosciences Department:
Nanoconfined Materials :
- 'More room for microphase separation: An extended study on binary liquids confined in SBA-15 cylindrical pores', Ramona Mhanna, Abdel Razzak Abdel Hamid, Sujeet Dutta, Ronan Lefort, Laurence Noirez, Bernhard Frick, Denis Morineau, Journal of Chemical Physics, 146, 024501 (2017).
- 'Multiple Glass Transitions of Microphase Separed Binary Liquids Confined in MCM-41', Abdel Razzak Abdel Hamid, Ramona Mhanna, Pierre Catrou, Yann Bulteau, Ronan Lefort, Denis Morineau, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 120, 11049-11053 (2016).
- 'Microphase Separation of Binary Liquids Confined in Cylindrical Pores', Abdel Razzak Abdel Hamid, Ramona Mhanna, Ronan Lefort, Aziz Ghoufi, Christiane Alba-Simionesco, Bernhard Frick, Denis Morineau, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 120, 9245-9252 (2016).
- 'Thermodynamics of binary gas adsorption in nanopores', Sujeet Dutta, Ronan Lefort, Denis Morineau, Ramona Mhanna, Odile Merdrignac-Conanec, Arnaud Saint-Jalmes, Théo Leclercq, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 18, 24361-24369 (2016).
Surfaces and Interfaces :
- ‘Band alignments in Fe/graphene/Si(001) junctions studied by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy’, Jean-Christophe Le Breton, Sylvain Tricot, Gabriel Delhaye, Bruno Lépine, Pascal Turban, Philippe Schieffer, Applied Physics Letters, 109, pp.051601 (2016).
- ‘Derivation of dielectric function and inelastic mean free path from photoelectron energy-loss spectra of amorphous carbon surfaces’, Denis David, Christian Godet, Applied Surface Science, 387, pp.1125-1139 (2016).
- ‘Spatially resolved band alignments at Au-hexadecanethiol monolayer-GaAs(001) interfaces by ballistic electron emission microscopy’, Alexandra Junay, Sophie Guézo, Pascal Turban, Gabriel Delhaye, Bruno Lépine, Sylvain Tricot, Soraya Ababou-Girard, Francine Solal, Journal of Applied Physics, 118 (8), pp.085310 (2015).
- ‘Raman analysis of gold catalyst vapor liquid solid germanium nanowires’, Israel M., Alain Moréac, Rogel R., Landesman J.P., Pichon L., Physica Status Solidi (c), 11 (11-12), pp.1618 (2014).
- ‘Layer-resolved study of Mg atom incorporation at MgO/Ag(001) buried interface’, Thomas Jaouen, Sylvain Tricot, Gabriel Delhaye, Bruno Lépine, Didier Sebilleau, Guy Jezequel, Philippe Schieffer, Physical Review Letters, 111 (2), pp. 027601 (2013).
ThEoS :
- 'ES2MS: An interface package for passing self-consistent charge density and potential from Electronic Structure codes To Multiple Scattering codes', X. Junqing, C. R. Natoli, P. Krüger, K. Hayakawa, D. Sébilleau, L. Song, K. Hatada Computer Physics Communications, 203, pp.331-338 (2016).
- 'Electron transport in ultra-thin films and ballistic electron emission microscopy', Y. Claveau, S. Di Matteo, P. L. Andres, F. F.lores Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 29 (11), pp.115001 (2017).
- 'Effective valence-bond theory for strongly correlated systems', M.-B. Lepetit, A. Gellé Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Understanding Chemistry and Biochemistry Using Computational Valence Bond Theory, 1116, pp.59-63 (2017).
- 'Computer modelling of the surface tension of the gas-liquid and liquid-liquid interface', A. Ghoufi, P. Malfreyt, D. J. Tildesley Chemical Society Reviews, 15 (2016).
