ElyT Lab - Nano & Micro Scale Materials & Devices

• Biosciences & Engineering (B), • Durability, Reliability in Energy and Transportation (R), • Nano & Micro Scale Materials & Devices (M), • Flow Dynamics, Heat Transfers and Microfluidics (F), • Tribology (T)

Nano & Micro Scale Materials & Devices (M)

Micro and nanoscale science and technology are enabling promising new materials and applications across many fields including electronics, transport, energy...
Research at the frontiers, intersections of many disciplines enables progress both in understanding nanoscale phenomena and in developing nanotechnology applications. Consequently, emergence of multidisciplinary teams with strong international collaborations brings a larger range of expertise, stimulates new ideas and expands new perspectives for the scientists.
In the frame of the ELyT Lab, this field included up to now four main projects in a wide range from material synthesis, characterization and device formation and gives rise to a fusion of researchers for nano-technology and applications. It is worthy to notice that two new projects are starting now, one focused on microstructural observations and one towards the material behavior under extreme pressure. In this latter case, the French partner belongs to Ecole Normale de Lyon, which confirms our strategy consisting in opening ELyT lab to very good teams, providing their topics belong within our priorities.

Thus ten projects are now running within this field, rapidly presented as following:

SThMstandard. Application of SThM and MEMS for nano-structure and device characterization. The main interest is the characterization of nano MEMS device. The project includes three main subjects, development of an active nanostructured calibration standard for SThM techniques, development of new SThM nanoprobes for nanoscale thermo electrical characterization and mechanical characterization of properties of thin films by means of MEMS methods.
NANOCHIMPion: Nano-structured Co alloys for Hip Implant: optimization of the microstructure and damage mechanisms. This project will deal with the optimization of the microstructure and of the damage mechanisms of Co alloys for hip implants, which is a worldwide research interest. The Chiba lab at IMR has initiated it for several years. The aim is to conjugate the deformation processes with rapid heat treatments in order to obtain higher mechanical properties coming from interaction between nanoscaled precipitates and staking faults. This type of rapid heat treatments can be carried out at INSA Lyon even on a prototype furnace permitting to achieve high heating and cooling rate or even on the INSA-Lyon Gleeble machine. The project will then deal with the damage mechanisms in this type of alloys by the means of 3D X ray tomography in MATEIS or at ESRF in Grenoble.
BMG: Fatigue and cracking resistance of bulk metallic glasses. Like fracture, fatigue of amorphous alloys was not extensively investigated until recently. The fatigue life behavior of bulk metallic glasses appears to be significantly different from that of crystalline alloys, for reasons that are not well understood. The Advanced Research Center of Metallic Glasses, Institute of Material research in Sendai, is a world leaser group in the field of bulk metallic glasses, especially in the preparation and processing of bulk metallic glasses. The MATEIS laboratory, INSA-Lyon, France, has a very large experience in material science and engineering, such as X-ray diffraction, small angle X-ray spectroscopy, electron microscopy and characterization of the mechanical properties. The two partners appear like very complementary, covering the different aspects.
TEGAMI: Improvement of the resolution of AFM electrical measurements. This project is the conjunction between bulk metal wire tip micromachining and AFM expertise from Tohoku University/IMR/Sakurai laboratory side and AFM electrical characterization expertise from the INSA Lyon/INL side. The main purpose is to check and to use the new possibilities given by bulk metal wire tip to improve the lateral (spatial) resolution on AFM for the nanoscale measurements of electrical properties of semiconductors surface and nanostructures such as doping, electrical charge, capacitance and conductance. Such conjunction is a real opportunity to develop such a project in an academic collaboration between Japan and France.
SIMPA: Silicon and Germanium based nanomaterials for Photovoltaic Application. It focuses on the fabrication and characterization of different kind of Silicon and Germanium-based nanostructures able to be used in multijunction tandem solar cells. A tandem solar cell is a multilayer structure that is equivalent to two (or more) PV cells in series, which covers a broader region of the solar spectrum: each material will absorb one part of the solar spectra in the most efficient way. In this project, PV group of INL and Crystal Physics group of IMR will fabricate and study the structural, optical and electrical properties of nc-Si and nc-Ge embedded in different dielectric layer as SiO2, Si3N4, Ti02, ZrO2, Hf02, a-SiGe.
MECHATHIN: Mechanical characterization of properties of thin films. This project consists in developing methods for measuring mechanical properties of thin films using MEMS activation. For now, such type of mechanical characterization have been developed using complex MEMS structures. However, based on the concept developed by the University of Louvain La Neuve (Belgium) and MATEIS researchers, and with the know-how of TU, it would be possible to design simple micromachines where the actuators are based on thermal stresses generated in a MEMS structure.
NANOINTER: Nano-intercalated Systems. This project explores the novel possibilities of accurately defining the physical properties of host materials nanostructures through intercalation for the development of new functional architectures based on nanometer scale interactions. The two partners have an internationally recognized experience of many years on the study of the physical properties of Nano-intercalated systems.
EMINA (NEW°): New Material microstructure analysis. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) remains an unsurpassed and required tool for examination of the nanostructure of materials. Modern approaches, such as High Angle Annular Dark-Field (HAADF) imaging, offers great advantages to study quantitatively heterogeneous materials and/or nano-objects. The two teams developed a strong research activity, and it is a great opportunity for the Centre Lyonnais de Microscopie (CLYM) to enlarge its international collaborations.
HP-MAT (NEW): Materials under extreme pressure. It focuses on the understanding of the earth mantel behavior, accounting for instance for phase transitions, flow dynamics inside deep layers, characterization techniques, etc. This project is typically at the interface of several topics developed by ELyT lab, and already strong interactions exist between different Lyon's teams (tribology for high pressure, flow dynamics, material science, etc.). The collaboration with the Tohoku University team has started several years ago, and ELyT lab will take benefit of it.

French side leader : Alain Fave, alain.fave[at]insa-lyon.fr

Japanese side leader : Akihiko Chiba, a.chiba[at]imr.tohoku.ac.jp

SubProjects

SubProjects	French & Japanese leaders
Development of probes and of an Active Nanostructured Calibration Standard for SThM Techniques SThMstandard	Severine Gomes (INSA) Takahito Ono (TU)
NANOstructured Co Alloys for Hip IMPlant: Optimisation of the Microstructure and Damage Mechanisms NANOCHIMPion	Damien Fabregue (INSA) Akihiko Chiba (TU)
Fatigue and Cracking Resistance of Bulk Metallic Glasses BMG	Jean-Marc Pelletier (INSA) Yoshihiko Yokoyama (TU)
Great Improvement of the Lateral Resolution of AFM Electrical Measurements Using Specific Tips TEGAMI	Georges Bremond (INSA) Kotone Akiyama (TU)
SIlicon and Germanium Based NanoMaterials for Photovoltaic Application SIMPA	Alain Fave (INSA) Noritaka Usami (TU)
MEchanical CHAracterization of Properties of THIN Films by means of MEMS Methods *MECHATHIN*	Damien Fabregue (INSA) Masayoshi Esashi (TU)
Nano-intercalated Systems with Accurate Physical Property Control NANOINTER	Alfonso San-Miguel (Lyon 1 U) Katsumi Tanigaki (TU)
Electron microscopy for nanostructures EMINA	Thierry Epicier (INSA) Toyohiko Kono (TU)
Materials behavior under high pressures HP-MAT	Jan Mattas (ENS-Lyon) Prof Ohtani (TU)

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Nano & Micro Scale Materials & Devices (M)

SubProjects