Projects
The team focuses on four research areas based on various THz spectroscopy techniques.
The team’s primary research focus is currently on the study of topological and Dirac materials using THz and MIR magnetospectroscopy. Analyzing the 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 framework of this first research theme, there are close 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 agri-environmental science and is based on the analysis of the multilayer structure of plants using THz data in the time domain, the spectroscopic study of intermolecular vibrations in plant substances, and the development of THz tools dedicated to studying plant responses to environmental stresses (water stress, heavy metal hyperaccumulation, and the circadian cycle).
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 nondestructive testing. This scientific work is now naturally extending to the study of THz plasmons in new materials (such as graphene and other Dirac materials) and optoelectronic devices.