Nanophysics - Quantum physics 1st year

Goal: This course is a deepening of the quantum mechanics concepts introduced in the undergraduate courses. The fundamental principle of quantum mechanics are illustrated by applications to nanoscale condensed-matter systems taken from recent research works and by discussing prospects for quantum information technologies. The concepts presented in this course are prerequisites for many second-year courses related to nanophysics and quantum engineering. A good knowledge in quantum mechanics is indeed more and more essential for technological research and development of nanoscale quantum devices.

Content

• Chapter 1: Introduction and recalls on the quantum mechanics postulates and formalism (Dirac notation, Hilbert space). Two-level system, Zeeman effect, spin Hamiltonian. Tensorial product notation for states and operators. Many-body quantum states (bosons and fermions).
  Exercices: Basics of quantum mechanics formalism.
• Chapter 2: Recalls on confinement problem. Electron bound states in a potential.
  Exercises: Example of 1D confinement problems, quantum harmonic oscillator.
• Chapter 3: Introduction to atomic physics. Spherical symmetry, angular and spin kinetic momenta. Mean field approximation, central potential, many electrons atoms, Hund rules, spin-orbit coupling, optical transitions.
  Exercises: Grotrian diagrams, spin-orbit coupling, fine and hyperfine structure.
• Chapter 4: Approximation methods for eigenstate calculations, perturbation theory, variational method.
  Exercises: Application to electronic systems.
• Chapter 5: Time evolution. General equation for the time evolution, two-level systems, perturbation theory, Fermi golden rules.
  Exercises: Application to Rabi oscillations.

Prerequisites: Basics of quantum mechanics.

Bibliography: Quantum mechanics, C. Cohen-Tannoudji, Vol. 1, ISBN-13: 978-0471164333, Vol. 2, ISBN-13: 978-0471569527.

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Goal: This solid-state physics class aims at providing the basics theories that allow to understand the properties of materials, and in particular their electronic and vibrational properties. Why are some solids metallic and other semiconducting ?  How can we describe their electrical and thermal properties ?  Applications to low-dimensional systems (including graphene and nanotubes) will serve as a bridge to nanosciences.

Content: Presentation of simple models and calculations of solids properties:

• Free electrons : classical Drude model.
• Quantum model: Sommerfeld model.
• Metals and insulators : nearly-free quantum model, tight-binding model, Bloch therorem.
• Vibrations in solids: acoustic and optical phonons, sound velocity.

Prerequisites: Electromagnetism, waves and vibrations, basic quantum mechanics.

Bibliography:
Introduction to solid state physics, 8th edition, Charles Kittel.
Solid state physics, Neil Ashcroft and David Mermin.

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Laser and nonlinear optics - 20h
The laser aspects will focus on the study of the gain medium and the resonator including the notions of oscillation threshold, Gaussian optics, stability, cavity modes and the different temporal regimes. Concerning nonlinear optics, it will deal with laser frequency synthesis and mixing like second harmonic generation, optical parametric amplification and optical parametric oscillation. Notions of crystal optics will be given in this framework.
 
Optical spectroscopy – 20h
This lecture concerns itself with the interaction between light and matter. In this part, we present a theoretical framework to discuss the absorption, emission, and luminescence properties of, principally, gas phase molecular systems. Experimental techniques will be discussed, including modern and state-of-the-art techniques used in the environmental (e.g., infrared trace gas detection) and life sciences (such as Raman non-linear spectroscopies).

Guided optics – 10h
The objective of this part of the course is to give an insight into guided wave optics. Starting from Maxwell's equations, guided waves in planar (1d) structures will be presented. The notions of effective index and modal distribution will be explained and practical tools to compute them will be given. An overview of guided modes in bidimensionnal structures will also be given. The effective index method will be used to obtain a first approximation of the modes supported by these structures.

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Semiconductors are fundamental materials for modern technologies. During the last century, the invention of the semiconductor devices enabled the first quantum revolution with the development of the microelectronics industry. Nowadays, researchers are pushing the semiconductor nanostructures to the quantum limit with the objective to produce a second revolution based on quantum information processing. This lecture describes the main electronic properties of the semiconductor materials and explains the working principle of basic electronic devices such as diodes and transistors. The objective is to give the students the ability to analyze various semiconductor configurations involving doping, gating, illumination, voltage bias, and to calculate physical quantities such as carrier concentrations, electrostatic potentials, and electrical currents.

Content

• electronic structure : crystal, energy bands, holes, effective mass, density of states.
• free carrier population : thermal equilibrium, chemical doping, degenerate limit.
• weak non-equilibrium transport : diffusion, conduction, Hall effect.
• light-induced effects : generation, recombination, light emission.
• electrostatics : self-consistent equations, screening, depletion.
• pn junctions : space charge region, carrier injection, diffusion currents, photodiode.
• metal-semiconductor contacts : work function, Schottky barrier, ohmic contact.
• metal-oxide-semiconductor devices : capacitors, field-effect transistors.

Labwork

Microfabrication and electrical characterization of a semiconductor device in the cleanroom facility of the CIME-Nanotech.

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Goal:  Magnetism is widely present in our daily environment, especially through the use of magnetic materials (motors and actuators, magnetic recording, MRI etc.). It is also a very active field of fundamental research, particularly in Grenoble. Meso- and macroscopic aspects are presented in details and the complex magnetic structures that are the subject of current research are discussed.

Content: This course is based on the following plan.
I)    Magnetism at atomic level, magnetic behaviours, magnetic ordering
II)    Magnetostatics (electromagnetism, definitions, demagnetizing field, linear magnetism, units)
III)    Experimental techniques
IV)    Phenomenology, mesoscopic magnetism (anisotropy, magnetization reversal, domain walls)
V)    Spin-dependent transport-Spintronics (Electronic transport in ferromagnets, Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR), Spin dependent tunneling, Magnetic tunnel junctions)

Tutorials:  Magnetostatics; magnetic orders, magnetic moments ; magnetic anisotropy ; magnetization reversal ; domain walls ; spin dependent transport

Labwork:  Students will follow 2 labworks among 4:
Vibrating sample magnetometer (inductive measurement of hysteresis loop for a ferromagnetic sample, anisotropy)
Susceptibility (measurement of temperature evolution of susceptibility, Curie-Weiss law), 
SQUID (use of a SQUID magnetometer to measure magnetic fields)
Magnetotransport (extraordinary Hall effect and giant magnetoresistance measurements)

Prerequisites: Knowledge in electromagnetism and solid state physics

Bibliography:
Magnetism vol 1, dir E. de Lacheisserie, PUG (1999)
EDP Sciences Introduction to Solid State Physics,
C. Kittel Solid State Physics
N. Aschroft and N. Aschroft. Mermin Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, J.M.D. Coey

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The Research Intensive Training is a trademark of the Master N². It is specifically dedicated to intensify the formation through research, allowing students to the be continuously immersed in their laboratories in parallel to their courses, during the 2 years of the program.

For this purpose, students can choose up to 3 optional RIT modules of 3 credits each, one in each semester of the program, except for the last semester which is already fully devoted to the master thesis.

A RIT module consists in a part-time internship in a lab of the Grenoble area, representing 1 day each week during a semester. RIT modules are thought to be performed in the same research teams on the same research project, allowing students to achieve a substantial research contribution with possibly a publication during their master.  However students can also change lab, project or research team, with the agreement of their program coordinator, in order to get a broader scientific experience. Students can then discover ongoing research in nanosciences not only in their specialization but also in sister disciplines. It also offers them an opportunity to initiate connections in view of finding their master thesis subject.

RIT modules are evaluated through a short report followed by an oral examination, in which students expose their research objectives, implementation, and results, and answer to the questions of the jury. RIT performed in the second semester of the first year can be evaluated together with the compulsory M1 research internship.

Admission to Research Intensive Training modules requires the agreement of the school-year coordinator.  In M1, the training is fully appropriate to students having completed a 4-years bachelor of science, or engineering, however 3-year's bachelors who have excellent academic results can also be admitted to the RIT.

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Goal: Introduce the basic statistical physics concepts to address the equilibrium and evolution properties of nano-scale systems.

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Goal:  Mechanics plays a forefront role at the nanoscale,  from the generation of nano-structures by growth instabilities to the properties of nano-composite materials, the design of micro and nano-mechanical devices, the nano-imaging techniques, the control of biologic functions.  This course introduces the mechanics of continuous media and its main applications to nanosciences and nano-technologies.  

Content:
- Simple deformations, definition of elastic modulii E, G, K, nu
- Flexion of beams, static, dynamics and waves. Example: the AFM cantilever.
- 3D linear elasticity of isotropic media: strain tensor ;  elasticity as a field theory (expression of the free energy) ; stress tensor ; general equilibrium equation
- elastic instabilities in thin films
- elasticity of membranes, ADN coil.

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Goal: As the size of systems decreases, surface effects become more important. The nano- scale is also the scale at which surface effects dominate over bulk effects. This course introduces the main notions to adress the specific properties and the organization of matter at surfaces from a physical, chemical and biological point of view.

Content:
- notions on molecular and surface interactions. The hydrophobic effect
- thermodynamics of surfaces ; surface tension
- capillarity, wetting, contact angle
- surfactants,  micelles, self-assemblies and lyotropic phases
- Gibbs monolayers, Langmuir-Blodgett films
- introduction to biologic membranes

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This course gives a general overview of some of the most common techniques used in image and signal processing, with a special focus in Fluid Mechanics. It starts with a review of the basic concepts of both signals and image processing (systems, block diagrams, Fourier series, 1 and 2D Fourier Transforms, basic image manipulation, filters…). In a second stage, the course focalises in more complex statistical techniques like, for the case of signals, spectral analysis, correlation and structure functions. For the case of images, it covers the reconstruction of particle trajectories and the basics of PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) analysis.  

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Objectives : Aquire some knowledges about electrochemisty methods as Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) , Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) to characterize electrochemical reactions in solution and immobilized on the surfaces of electrodes.
Examples taken from litterature illustrate the lectures for a better understanding to characterize, investigate electrochemical systems, to elucidate different electrochemical reactions.

Content :

• Lectures + tutorials :13.5 H

- Reminders (1H 30)

- Cyclic Voltammetry (6 H): -Experimental and theoretical basis of voltammetry
Characterization in solution of reversible redox systems, irreversible redox systems,
quasi-reversible redox systems, consecutive redox systems, coupled homogeneous
chemical reactions EC reaction, CE reaction, EC reaction (catalytic) , ECE reactions,′
Characterization of immobilized systems on electrode

- Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (6 H): -Measurement: principle, experimental conditions
Impedance of circuit elements in an electrochemical system, Impedance of electrochemical systems,
Modeling utilizing electric and dielectric parameters

• Lab works : 3 experimental work sessions (3 X 4 H) illustrate topics of lectures

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Ce cours se concentrera sur la formation aux étudiants à l’élaboration de curriculum vitae et lettre de motivation, à la préparation aux entretiens d’embauche dans le monde industriel. Une large partie de cet enseignement sera aussi consacrée à la gestion de projets et à la notion d’innovation.

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• To address multidisciplinary approaches in nanosciences through a set of practical work.
• To train on high-tech platforms in nanosciences and in nanotechnology.
• To understand chemical methods of nanomaterials synthesis by a bottom-up approach.
• To learn the physical principles and practice of nanomaterials characterization techniques

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Goal: This solid-state physics class is the follow up of Solid-State Physics I. It goes one step further in the description of solid properties, including light-matter interactions (polarons, polaritons), effects of magnetic field (Landau levels, Fermi surfaces) and new states of matter (introduction to superconductivity and magnetic order).

Content: 

• Review of electronic band structures.
• Effects of interactions: plasmons, polarons and polaritons.
• Effects of magnetic field: Landau levels, probe of Fermi surfaces, quantum Hall effect.
• New states of matter : superconductivity, magnetic phases, spin Hamiltonians, magnons.

Bibliography:
Introduction to solid state physics, 8th edition, Charles Kittel
Solid state physics, Neil Ashcroft and David Mermin

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Goal: Because numerical tools in nowadays science research has become unavoidable, this course aims in familiarizing with methodologies, Python language and algorithms, ranging from classical to quantum physics, when the use of the numerics is inevitable to get answers to a problem.

Content: Based on independent projects starting on day one and possibly related to the different topics encountered during their master, the students will have to do an A to Z study, developing their own model, implementing it in Python with an appropriate approach, benchmarking it by understanding pros and cons and eventually doing the physical analysis.

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Goal: Introduction to local probes techniques in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnologies.

Content

1. Introduction to Scanning Probes Microscopy (1h30)

• Comparison between surface analysis techniques: SEM/TEM, SFA
• Presentation of the SPM sub-families: STM / SFM / SNOM via examples of applications

2. The Scanning Tunneling Microscope (7h)

• The tunneling effect
  • STM relevant parameters
  • Expression of the tunneling current
• The STM instrument
  • Tip fabrication methods
  • Electronic and instrumental chain to measure and control tunnelling current in the pico/nano-ampere range ADC/DAC, I/V converter, lock-in amplifier
  • Source of noises and detection limit
  • Vibration isolation (tutorial on transfer function and damping)
  • Measurement at low temperature : how to operate an STM in a cryostat>
• Operating STM modes and associated measurements
  • Local density of states (LDOS) and I/V spectroscopy
  • Constant current mode versus constant height mode

3. The Atomic Force Microscope (12h)

• Why mechanical oscillators
  • Introduction and history
  • Mechanical susceptibility
  • Limits of sensitivity (readout noise and Brownian motion)
  • Working at resonance, decrease the size/mass
• How to build an AFM
  • Micro fabrication of cantilever and tips
  • Nano positioning (piezo material and issues with them as hysteresis…)
  • Precision position measurements (optical and capacitive)
  • Signal analysis (Homodyne detection, PLL and PID)
• Operating AFMs
  • Calibration process (cantilever stiffness, position detection)
  • What physical values are accessible (van der Waals, electrical, magnetic, friction forces)
  • Different modes of operation
• Maps analysis and image processing
  • Surface analysis parameters: rms, ra, skewness, kurtosis, etc
  • Artefacts, tip dilation effect
  • Tilt correction via polynomial subtraction and color scale
  • Tutorial on processing of the images and spectroscopy curves obtained in PW via Gwyddion software

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The internship is a key step of the M1 since in many cases it is the first long stay in a Research lab to develop an original scientific topics. The internship lasts a minimum of 8 weeks between April to June, on a subject related to nanosciences or nanotechnologies.
The internship can be a performed in a research institute of the Grenoble area or abroad, or in a company.
Students conduct a research project under the guidance of their supervisor. The internship can be extended during the summer up a to length of 4 months.

At the end of June students have to produce a report of about 20 pages including the bibliography. The report introduces their subject, the state of the art, and their objectives. It describes the methods they have used, their realizations, and discusses the results obtained during the internship. The reports concludes by giving perspectives of the performed work.
The students have then an oral defense based on a presentation of 15mn followed by 10mn of questions.

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The goal of this course is to offer a pool of advanced quantum labworks covering a broad field of topics: quantum materials, quantum engineering, quantum information and quantum technologies.

Students will attend from 5 to 7 labworks (depending on the number of students) among the ones listed below:

• Labwork 1: 2D Materials 1, atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy on graphene, F. Marchi and N. Bendiab
• Labwork 2: 2D Materials 2, scanning tunneling microscopy on graphene bilayers, V. Renard
• Labwork 3: Hall effect, magnetoresistance of semiconductors, A. Kuhn
• Labwork 4: Superconductivity, evidence of the Meissner effect, A. Kuhn
• Labwork 5: Quantum optics 1, generation of entangled photon pairs using non-linear optics, P. Segonds
• Labwork 6: Quantum optics 2, entanglement and Bell inequalities, D. Ferrand
• Labwork 7: Quantum oscillations in topological materials, A. Pourret
• Labwork 8: Photon bunching in cathodoluminescence, G. Jacopin

The detailed planning will be established after the start of the academic year.

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The Nanosciences course offers high level experimental training and labwork performed in the nano-facilities and technology centers of UGA: CIME-Nanotech, CUBE, Chemistry platform.

Nanosciences Labwork

This course addresses the pluridisciplinar aspect of nanosciences and in nanotechnologies. The goal is to train students at the interface between the different sciences: chemistry and physics (Part I), physics and biology (Part II), and show the importance of a collaborative approach to the production and the characterization of nanoscale objects. Courses are in support for understand the great principles of the bottom-up approach in nanochemistry, the physical principle of different methods of characterization in nanosciences (AFM, SEM, TEM) and the elementary principles in biophysics. The pedagogical team is composed of teachers working in the field of nanochemistry, nanophysics and biophysics. The different practical work taking place on various practical teachings platforms located in Grenoble allowing the use of characterizations equipment at the forefront of nanoscience research.

Nano-biophysics

This course  is devoted to the Morphological and the Mechanical studies of biological cells fixed on a micro-functionalized pattern, by Atomic Force and Fluorescence Microscopies techniques. It consists of 14h of lectures addressing  biochemical and physical concepts at the nanoscale, and 12h of labwork taking place at the CUBE and CIME-Nanotech.

• To address multidisciplinary approaches in nanosciences through a set of practical work.
• To train on high-tech platforms in nanosciences and in nanotechnology.
• To understand chemical methods of nanomaterials synthesis by a bottom-up approach.
• To learn the biophysical principles of the interface between nanomaterials and animal cells.

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The Research Intensive Training is a trademark of the Master N². It is specifically dedicated to intensify the formation through research, allowing students to the be continuously immersed in their laboratories in parallel to their courses, during the 2 years of the program.

For this purpose, students can choose up to 3 optional RIT modules of 3 credits each, one in each semester of the program, except for the last semester which is already fully devoted to the master thesis.

A RIT module consists in a part-time internship in a lab of the Grenoble area, representing 1 day each week during a semester. RIT modules are thought to be performed in the same research teams on the same research project, allowing students to achieve a substantial research contribution with possibly a publication during their master.  However students can also change lab, project or research team, with the agreement of their program coordinator, in order to get a broader scientific experience. Students can then discover ongoing research in nanosciences not only in their specialization but also in sister disciplines. It also offers them an opportunity to initiate connections in view of finding their master thesis subject.

RIT modules are evaluated through a short report followed by an oral examination, in which students expose their research objectives, implementation, and results, and answer to the questions of the jury. RIT performed in the second semester of the first year can be evaluated together with the compulsory M1 research internship.

Admission to Research Intensive Training modules requires the agreement of the school-year coordinator.  In M1, the training is fully appropriate to students having completed a 4-years bachelor of science, or engineering, however 3-year's bachelors who have excellent academic results can also be admitted to the RIT.

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This course gives an introduction to the concepts of many-body quantum mechanics. It describes the quantum statistics of bosons and fermions, and the quantum properties of systems composed of many identical particles. The main theoretical ingredient for this purpose is the creation and annihilation operators of quantum particles, in what is sometimes called the "second quantization formalism".

Content

• Chapter 1: Quantum statistics and theoretical tools in quantum mechanics
  Density operator
  Bosons, Fermions, quantum statistics
  Quantum states of identical particles
• Chapter 2: Bosons and light-matter interactions
  Electromagnetic field quantization, field creation and annihilation operators
  Fock states, coherent states
  Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian and vacuum Rabi oscillations
  Bose-Einstein condensation and Gross-Pitaevski equation
• Chapter 3: Fermionic systems
  Introduction to fermionic creation and annihilation operators
  Fermi sea: electrons and holes
  Hartree-Fock approximation
  Hubbard model
  Cooper pairs, Bogoliubov transformation

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In the context of intensive research on post-CMOS electronics, a new families of nano-materials has opened new avenues in different fields, including optoelectronics and quantum information. These low-dimensional systems are a new playground to understand the interactions between elementary excitations, electron-phonon and phonon-phonon, which play a major role in the behavior of electron transport and heat at this nanoscale. For example, the reduction of dimensionality in the case of graphene has made the adiabatic approximation obsolete. Thus, the electron-phonon coupling is so strong that the optical phonons can be modulated by an external electric field but also as has been recently shown by an optical grid.

The important advances in the control of graphene electronic properties, open the way to new two-dimensional materials. Thus, monolayers of Dichalcogenides of Transition Metals such as MoS₂ (MoSe₂, WS₂, WSe₂, …etc.) have appeared very recently as promising nanostructures for applications in both the field of optics and electronics. We will discuss the growth of such materials including the fabrication of heterostructures based on graphene (semi-metal), boron nitride (insulator) and MoS₂ (semiconductor) and their physical properties. Indeed marrying different 2D systems can take advantage of the properties of each part and more since the resulting hybrid is more than the sum of its parts.

This lecture will give an overview of the physical properties of graphene on the one hand, new 2D semiconductors like MoS₂ on the other hand and will open on the heterostructures. We will discuss their growth, band structure, phonons, electron-phonon coupling, excitons in MoS₂, the spin / valley polarization but also the prototype components (transistor, photodiode, LED ...) based on this new class of materials.

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This course is an introductory course on molecular electronics and magnetism accessible for both chemists and physicists. Accordingly, it will be given by a physicist and a chemist to browse the two aspects of the subject. It will present in an illustrated and accessible fashion the principles of quantum  electron transport in molecular and nanoscale devices and offer an overview of this active field of Nanosciences. It will insist on the effect of inserting magnetically active molecules in such set-ups.

Contents :

• Physical/Chemical basis (distinct lecture for the two publics to bring them to a common language)
• Mesoscopic transport
• Magnetic anisotropy in Transion Metal and Lanthanide complexes
• One-electron transistor
• Transport through a quantum box
• Single Molecule Magnets (SMM)
• Grafting and probing SMM on surfaces
• Article analysis

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1. INTRODUCTION

2. BASIC PHOTOPHYSICAL PROCESSES

2.1. Creating excited states by light absorption
2.2. Properties of excited states
2.2.1. Geometry
2.2.2. Acid-base properties
2.2.3. Redox properties
2.2.4. Dipolar moment
2.3. Deactivation of the excited electronic states
2.3.1. Non-radiative transitions
2.3.2. Radiative transitions
2.3.3. Parameters
2.3.4. Experimental measurement

3. QUENCHING OF EXCITED STATES

3.1. Kinetics of Stern-Volmer

3.2. Energy transfer reaction (electronic)
3.2.1. Radiative energy transfer
3.2.2. Non-radiative energy transfer by resonance
3.2.3. Non-radiative energy transfer by exchange
3.3. Electron transfer reactions
2.3.1. Energy aspect
3.3.2. Kinetic aspect
3.3.3. Application of electron transfer to conversion and storage of solar energy
3.4. Excimers and exciplexes
3.5. Time-resolved spectroscopy method

4. PHOTONICS OF SOLIDS AND NANOPARTICLES
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Exciton formation
4.3. Applications of photonics of solids
5. PHOTOCHEMICAL AND PHOTOCHROMIC REACTIONS
5.1. Photochemical reactions
5.1.1. The biradical reactions
5.1.2. Pericyclic reactions
5.2. Photochromic reactions

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Goal: This course will give a general view on the topic of photon or wave interactions with matter at various energy scales and length scales.

Content
In the first part, we will focus on the problem of the propagation of an electromagnetic wave when the wavelength is large (UV, optical, etc.) compared to the interatomic distances. The problem of polarization of the medium in metals and in semiconductors (Drude, Lorentz, interband, etc.) will be discussed and surface plasmons which are longitudinal excitations at the SC-metal interface will be treated. Finally, we will discuss how we can localize light on length scales smaller than the wavelength (e.g. nanoparticles). This part will be completed by a section on the Kramers-Kronig relations that link reflectance to absorption. The second part of the course will focus on phenomena where the incident wavelength is much smaller, such that matter can be resolved to atomic scales. The problem of structure factors and their interpretation in terms of correlation functions (neutrons, X, etc.) will be discussed.

References

1. Zangwill, Modern Electrodynamics, Cambridge University Press.
2. D. Tanner, Optical Effects in Solids, Cambridge University Press.
3. P. Chaikin and T. Lubensky, Principles of Condensed Matter Physics, Cambridge University Press.

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This lecture aims to present the main classes of material and their physical properties via two complementary approaches. One is based on the bondings between atoms and how these bonds influence the elastic, thermal, and electrical conductivity properties of materials, whereas the second one is related to the Fermi surface analysis.  Microscopical models of physical phenomena like permittivity, piezoelectricity, or ferromagnetism will be described and how the material properties change at the surface.

Contents

Chapter 0 : Introduction - Functional materials
Chapter 1: The various types of bonds and the classes of materials
Chapter 2: Relationship between bonds and simple properties of materials
(thermal, mechanical, electrical properties)
Chapter 3:  Quantum models of materials (Sommerfeld and band theory)
Chapter 4:  Dielectric, ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and magnetic properties
           and their measurements.
Chapter 5:  Surface properties

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The study of thin-film materials is the basis of several research projects and sectors of activity. Indeed, the thin film state covers activities ranging from optics for the development of waveguides or anti-reflection layers, to microelectronics for the production of semiconductor layers or for the production of energy in fuel cell devices. This course will present an overview of the thin film states and its specificities trough 3 chapters:
• What could we call a thin film? What implies this specific state?
• Brief presentation of the physical techniques (PVD, PLD, evaporation…) and more specific description of the chemical routes (ALD, CVD and Sol-Gel chemistry)
• General tools of morphology characterization will be presented first. Special care will be given to the specific tools for structural determination (Grazing incidence XRD, texture measurments and Transmission Electron Microscopy).

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