Welcome to the website of our research group "Micro & Nano Characterizations" (MNC)!

Our research is linked to optoelectronics, nano-optics, nanothermics, and phase-change materials.

– Optoelectronics. Our activities focus on the bottom-up and solution-processed development of hybrid materials (halide perovskites, colloidal nanocrystals) and on the study of their structure–property relationships, together with the engineering of light–matter interactions at the nanoscale, to design advanced optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells and photodetectors, and to explore emerging active device architectures and optoelectronic properties.
– Near-field optics with fluorescent nanoprobes. Our activities concern the study of dielectric and plasmonic nanostructures using a scanning fluorescent probe that detects the near-field. We also study the interactions between fluorescent particles and the local environment.
– Micro and nanothermics. We study thermal properties of compounds and devices using a fluorescent scanning probe microscope. The particle acts as a nanothermometer. By analyzing fluorescence variations we can determine the temperature with a sub-micron lateral resolution.
– Neuromorphic quantum materials and devices. We explore quantum phase-change materials such as vanadium dioxide (VO2) for brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing. By imaging and controlling their insulator–metal patterns at the micro- and nanoscale, we aim to design energy-efficient artificial neurons and synapses within a single material platform.

We are part of the Laboratoire de Physique et d’Etude des Matériaux (LPEM), a joint lab between the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle (ESPCI-ParisTech), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Sorbonne Université.