The current biopsy procedure is to introduce a needle inside the patient towards a given target using echography imaging for control of the position. Reaching the target at the right position is a real issue for diagnosis, therapy and also prognosis, for example concerning tumors or abscess. The NOCT project aims at developing two apparatus, one for imaging and one for navigation, integrated in a complete clinical application of real-time echography navigated biopsy, which would be the first of its kind in the world. We will build an optical imaging system with a needle-like probe that could perform virtual “optical biopsy” prior to the excision of the sample by revealing in vivo the fine microstructures of the tissue. Full-Field OCT is the best-suited technique for this purpose. This technology is now commercialized in a microscope for ex vivo imaging, and we plan on adapting it in a system with a thin rigid probe, with emphasize on ergonomic constraints such as the diameter and length of the needle. We will create a precise surgical navigation system that will be adapted to the clinical ambulatory context, so that it would become in the next decade a reference system for computer assisted medical interventions. This project is a translational research between physics, informatics and medicine, where a key point is to adapt novel technologic apparatus to specific clinical needs. With the aim of the future clinical application we will characterize the preclinical and clinical performance and pay attention on risk management and authorization from the CPP, ANSM and HAS. We will meet these challenges as a consortium of five partners: two laboratories specialized in optics and in computer assisted medical interventions, Institut Langevin-ESPCI and TIMC-IMAG, one clinical investigation center specialized in interventional radiology and computer assisted medical interventions, CIC-IT, and two private companies that will industrialize the final resulting systems, LLTech and Surgiqual Institute.

More than two decades ago has emerged a new technology exploiting electron spins to convey information within an electric circuitry. This technology, known as spintronics, translates in advantages such as nonvolatile storage technology, fast-data processing speed and low-power consumption. The working principle of a spintronic device is to generate a non-equilibrium spin population and to detect it. However, creation and detection occurs in different regions of the device. During the transfer process from one region to the other, the spin population tends to relax towards its non spin-polarized equilibrium state weakening then the efficiency of the device. One of the central research areas in spintronics therefore aims at perfecting this transfer process. Present efforts involve improving existing technology or finding novel radical ways of manipulating spin-polarized electrons. The SPINCOMM project is in line with this second approach and falls in the context of molecular spintronics. The purpose of project SPINCOMM is to carry out the first fundamental investigation of spin transport across a single organometallic wire. To achieve this ambitious goal, a pioneering bottom-up approach will be implemented through four innovating strategies: 1) SIMPLIFICATION: The wires will have a multi-decker architecture where single transition-metal atoms alternate with cyclopentadienyl rings (C5H5). Strikingly, these wires have been predicted to display a 100% spin-filtering efficiency over a wide bias range. 2) CONTROL: Transport measurements will be carried out with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) operated in ultrahigh vacuum. The molecules will be deposited onto a well-calibrated surface and then contacted by the STM tip. Junction formation with a single multi-decker molecule will be greatly facilitated by the upstanding adsorption geometry onto the surface. Precise information about the binding properties of the multi-decker molecule to the electrodes will be available. XMCD measurements will be carried out independently to carefully characterize the magnetic status of the molecules. 3) CUSTOMIZATION: The chemical composition of the molecule and its length will be modified directly in the STM junction to optimize spin transport. Moreover, the material of tip and surface will be changed in order to tackle different aspects of spin transport. These essentially consist in the Kondo effect (non-magnetic tip and surface) and its interplay with spin-polarized electrons (ferromagnetic tip and a non-magnetic surface), as well as a transport across a single-molecule spin-valve (ferromagnetic tip and surface). 4) SIMULATION: Given the unprecedented microscopic control exerted over the junction and the simplified molecular architecture employed, the experimental data will be highly amenable to first-principle calculations. State-of-the-art density functional theory and transport calculations will be used to unravel the key mechanisms governing spin transport, along with non-equilibrium and correlated calculations to treat the Kondo problem. With the know-how acquired, the mono-decker architecture of the molecule will be exploited for developing a new spin-sensitive microscopy. A molecular tip comprising a mono-decker molecule will be used to record “contact images” of the surface. Surfaces with opposite magnetizations are expected to produce a higher contrast than the one accessible to SP-STM due to the nearly ideal spin-filtering effect of the mono-decker molecule. With spin-polarized contact microscopy it will be possible to map the spin-polarized properties of surfaces and nanostructures with atomic-scale spatial resolution and to assess the impact of defects, surface impurities, and electronic inhomogeneities on spin transport. We expect this technique to develop quickly and to have a success similar to one of SP-STM in these last ten years.

The proposed research programme aims at identifying noise-generating mechanisms in subsonic turbulent jets, and at the development of closed-loop control laws for the reduction of jet noise through flow actuation. An interdisciplinary approach combines experiment, numerical simulation and theoretical modelling in a coordinated effort, between three partner institutions with complementary expertise. While optimal control laws can, in principle and at enormous computational cost, be devised on the empirical basis of numerical simulations, taking into account the entire turbulent spectrum, the present proposal focuses on the dominant noise component associated with large-scale coherent flow structures, that drive the low-angle sound field. Fundamental progress in the understanding of the dynamics of these coherent structures, as well as their sound generation, will provide guidance for novel strategies to actively control and reduce jet noise. The programme addresses the following questions: Which mechanisms govern the formation of orderly structures in jet turbulence? Can these structures be accurately described as instability wavepackets forming on top of a steady mean flow, as has often been conjectured? To what extent do nonlinear phenomena determine the wavepacket structure and the resulting acoustic field? And how can knowledge of these mechanisms be leveraged for jet noise reduction? Control strategies will be devised, and these will be tested in a real experiment during the final stage of the project. The proposal builds on ongoing research activities at the three partner institutions, which so far have been developed independently without formal collaboration. The synergy potential of these complementary activities is considerable, and the proposal precisely aims to provide a framework for a coordinated interaction with a common set of objectives. Operational tools and preliminary results exist for all the main stages of the proposed programme. These include ongoing experiments on jet dynamics and their acoustic signature at PPRIME; a validated LES code; numerical tools for jet instability analysis at LadHyX, that are currently used on model configurations and await application on real-life jet data; model-free control concepts, developed at LadHyX, ONERA and LIMSI, that have been successfully deployed to reduce sound emission from flow over cavities; and reduced-order modeling for flow control (ANR Chair of Excellence at Pprime). International collaborations on jet noise research, with Tim Colonius at the California Institute of Technology and with André Cavalieri at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (Sao José dos Campos, Brazil), are already in place and will be further intensified during the course of the proposed programme. The proposal seeks funding for (i) one PhD student (3 years) and four postdoc years; (ii) experimental equipment for particle image velocimetry in high-speed jets; (iii) travel expenses for conference participation and for the collaboration between partners, including the external collaborators at Caltech and at ITA.