Research topics

In my career I have been interested in nanomagnetism and more recently spintronics, studied in nanostructures fabricated by bottom-up approaches. I have been using epitaxial self-organization, implying a significant time spent on the development of new growth processes, liable to yield original nanostructures. I use mostly pulsed laser deposition under ultra-high vacuum as the deposition technique. The nanostructures could be randomly distributed on the surface or organized in 1D (array of wires) or 2D (array of dots), with a size in the range from a few nanometers to several microns. Typical features of interest in the smallest nanostructures are magnetic anisotropy and magnetic ordering, while these are domains and domain walls in the largest ones.

In recent years my main focus is to tackle fundamental bottlenecks towards the technological concept of a material for a 3D magnetic memory, namely the race-track memory based on domain walls in dense arrays of vertical nanowires. In this concept, series of domain walls in cylindrical nanostructures would be used to codes bits of information, to be moved with spin-polarized currents thanks to spin-transfer phenomena. This research involves cross-disciplinary work performed with colleagues in chemistry department, and the use and development of advanced magnetic microscopy techniques, in particular magnetic force microscopy and Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy.

Research links

• SPINTEC is the lab in which I am currently working, following twenty years spent at Institut Néel. Both are located in Grenoble, France.
• Some research programs I am or have been involved in:
  • M3d: Materials for a Magnetic Memory in Three Dimensions. A European NMP collaborative project, for which I am acting as a coordinator.
  • STReP program MAGDOT: Bridging Atomistic to Continuum Scales - Multiscale Investigation Of Self-Assembling Magnetic Dots In Epitaxial Growth
  • ANR (French) project VerNanoMag (as coordinator): .Versatility of self-organized magnetic nanostructures and materials: fabrication and functionality.