Projects
The team focuses on four research areas based on various THz spectroscopy techniques.
The team’s current primary focus is on the study of topological and Dirac materials using THz and MIR magnetospectroscopy. The analysis of optical transitions between Landau levels allows us to reconstruct the band structure of these new materials (HgCdTe, InAs/GaSb, NbAs, TaAs, Cd₃As₂…) and to investigate certain exotic properties of semi-relativistic fermions (Kane, Dirac, Weyl). To achieve this, the three experimental techniques employed are magnetoabsorption, magnetophotoconductivity, and Landau emission. Within the scope of this first research theme, there are strong collaborations with the Quantum Transport and New 2D Materials team at L2C, as well as with the NanoMIR team at IES.
La deuxième activité est liée à la biophysique et vise à expliquer les mécanismes d’interaction elecrodynamique entre les protéines au sein des cellules. Prédites dès le début du XXèmesiècle par l’électrodynamique classique et quantique, les forces intermoléculaires agissant à longue distance (<1000 angströms) n’ont jamais été démontrées expérimentalement. Dans ce cadre, l’analyse spectrale de la dynamique non-linéaire de biomolécules en milieu aqueux est réalisée par deux techniques expérimentales de spectroscopie THz en champ proche qui sont développées pour étudier les couplages internes amenant les biomolécules se synchroniser.
The team’s third area of activity relates to agro-environmental science and involves analyzing the multilayer structure of plants using time-domain THz data, conducting spectroscopic studies of the intermolecular vibrations of substances found in plants, and developing THz tools specifically designed to study plant responses to environmental stresses (water stress, heavy metal hyperaccumulation, and circadian rhythm).
The fourth research area is the team’s long-standing focus. It is dedicated to the study of collective electronic phenomena in two-dimensional electron gases. A detailed analysis of plasma waves in nanotransistors led in 2014 to a technology transfer and the creation of the startup Terakalis, which now uses this new technology in THz imaging systems applied to industrial non-destructive testing. This scientific activity naturally extends today to the study of THz plasmons in new materials (such as graphene and other Dirac materials) and optoelectronic devices.