The rapid development of not only optoelectronics and electrical signal processing for information and communication technologies, but also fundamental/applied science for nanometrology and nanoimaging, requires monitoring coherent surface acoustic waves (SAWs) with deeply sub-optical localization depths in the currently unexplored frequency range of 100 GHz - 1 THz. While bulk acoustic waves can be monitored up to THz frequencies by ultrafast lasers in superlattices (SLs) with nanometer periodicity, the highest SAW frequencies recorded in metallic gratings deposited on surfaces lie below 100 GHz. The use of SLs cleaved along their growth direction for optical SAW excitation has been proposed though not achieved experimentally. The goal of this project is to demonstrate, for the first time, optical monitoring of sub-THz SAWs (STSAWs) by developing original optoacoustic (OA) and acousto-optic (AO) transducers based on such cleaved SLs and an efficient non-thermoelastic OA conversion. Dedicated numerical modeling will optimize the SL design (dispersion characteristics, OA/AO conversion efficiencies) for STSAW propagation, generation and detection. The atomic-precision fabrication of SLs and use of advanced ultrafast pump-probe laser techniques will fulfill this objective. STSAW interactions with charge carriers and 2D materials will be showcased. The project relies on complementarity and knowledge transfer between applicant (numerical modeling, coherent acoustics control) and host institution (SAW theory, laser monitoring of SAWs); it will expand the applicant's experience and skills, shaping the applicant’s career as an independent researcher. Results will be disseminated via networking, conferences and peer-reviewed publications. This project will greatly enhance Europe's technological competitiveness by pioneering controllable STSAWs and providing a platform to explore the fundamentals of OA/AO conversions at picosecond temporal scale and nanometer spatial scale.

This research project context is about teachers-designers using Learning Management Systems within their academic organizations. Despite all instructional design propositions, the operationalization of learning scenarios into an LMS is still an issue. These practitioners also ask for appropriate tools helping them in understand the underlying “way of thinking and designing” of their LMS. We aim at supporting practitioners to overcome these LMS' obstacles in order to help them in focusing on the design of learning situations. Current proposals rely on a same underlying idea about evolving existent LMS by large add-ons (editors or runtime engines) and new semantics. On the contrary, we suggest to exploit this implicit language in order to allow the elaboration of some external, well-suited and dedicated authoring tools. The main idea of this project is to provide teachers-designers with some graphical Visual Instructional Design Languages, and their dedicated editors, taking into account their practices and needs, while ensuring that produced models will be operationalized without major semantics losses into the targeted LMS. We originally propose to develop VIDLs on top of the LMS internal language in order to insure the binding issue and the semantics mapping. To this aim, we will identify and formalize the LMS implicit instructional design language. By only extending LMS with a dedicated communication API, binding issues will be addressed. We propose then to target teachers-designers instructional design needs and practices, capturing into analysis&design patterns,. by developing VIDLs designed on top of the LMSs languages by some Model-Driven Engineering and Domain-Specific Modeling techniques and tools. The main issue will consist in the proposition of techniques for specifying meta-models both based on the LMS semantics and directed towards the practitioners' one.

We propose to extend a recently discovered and novel route to the non-aqueous synthesis of Metal Oxide NanoParticles (MONPs; M: Zn, Ce, Zr) that uses as precursors (i) their nitrate salt and (ii) affordable plants, like the doum or beet root, some of their constituents such as glucose and sucrose and even simpler organic compounds such as glycerol and ethylene glycol (iii) which is carried out in a one pot synthesis with foaming at low temperature (< 110°C) in a few minutes compared to those reported that require a higher temperature, several steps and several hours (500°C, 8 h). We will take advantage of this study to model, on simple compounds, the mechanism of MONP synthesis involving plants described as "green synthesis" in the literature, which until now has not yet been properly rationalized. To this end, we have strategically assembled a panel of scientists from different fields ranging from physics and materials science to inorganic and organic chemistry, belonging to both academia and industry. We will extend our original discovery to a series of strategically selected organic compounds containing different functional groups to find those that behave as described above and eventually produce MONPs by foaming. Finally, we will apply our findings to the large-scale production of certain MONPs (M: Ce, Zr) through a partnership with "Stûv", a leading company specializing in the manufacture of domestic wood stoves, a sustainable resource for household heating. This should give this European industry a competitive advantage at the international level. MNOPs will be inserted into filters to destroy Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) found in smoke generated by household woodstoves. The economic impact should be significant because the emission of toxic fumes is a brake on the use of this mode of heating in Europe. This project is in line with and goes beyond the new European regulations (Ecodesign2022).

In this project, we aim at designing Janus nanocylinders via supramolecular self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers. Janus particles in general are solid colloids consisting of two sides with different chemistry or polarity. Micron-sized spherical Janus particles have attracted much attention recently because they can be prepared in large quantities and could be used for many applications (emulsion stabilizers, probes, sensors, two-colour display panels...). On the contrary, Janus nanocylinders are very difficult to prepare and have little been studied in spite of their high potential. Their anisotropic shape and nanometric dimensions would indeed make them very efficient emulsion stabilizers because large interfaces could be covered with small quantities. Moreover, in a selective solvent for one of their faces, Janus nanocylinders have been observed to form long superstructures which should exhibit interesting rheological properties (shear thickening, yield stress). It is thus relevant to search for efficient methods for the preparation of Janus nanocylinders. Our approach consists in synthesising amphiphilic diblock copolymers containing a hydrogen bonding unit in their middle and subsequently promote their self-assembly into Janus cylinders in solution. This approach is not demanding in terms of synthetic efforts because the only prerequisite is the preparation of the amphiphilic diblock copolymers. Then, directional self-assembly of the hydrogen bonding units will lead to the formation of supramolecular nanocylinders, whereas phase segregation of the two incompatible blocks will turn the cylinders into Janus structures. The hydrogen-bonding amphiphilic diblocks will be prepared by a combination of controlled radical polymerization and organic chemistry, leading to very well defined molecules. Then, their self-assembly will be studied in different conditions. In a non-selective non-polar solvent, where hydrogen bonds are promoted but solvophobic interactions are limited, the diblocks should form supramolecular cylinders. The structural characteristics of the cylinders will be studied via scattering techniques (dynamic and static light scattering, small angle neutron and X-ray scattering), whereas the thermodynamic parameters of the self-assembly will be investigated via isothermal microcalorimetry, quantitative Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy or viscosimetry. A key advantage of our strategy comes from the supramolecular nature of the cylinders: the structural characteristics (length, diameter, rigidity, asymmetry...) of the self-assembled cylinders can be controlled in situ in a dynamic way (that is reversibly and rapidly) by playing with various stimuli such as the temperature, polymer concentration, nature of the solvent or addition of other hydrogen bonding molecules. Once the influence of all these parameters will have been studied in a non-selective solvent, the self-assembly will be studied in non polar but selective solvents. Secondary solvophobic interactions will then develop, leading to the formation of large superstructures in solution. The structural characteristics of these superstructures will be compared to those of the individual cylinders and their rheological properties will be investigated in parallel. Finally, the amphiphilic block copolymers will be used to stabilize liquid-air or liquid-liquid interfaces. State-of-the-art techniques developed in our laboratory will be employed to establish how these self-assembling molecules modify interfacial properties.