Cyriaque Genet
Biography
Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS), University of Strasbourg and CNRS
Dr. Cyriaque Genet obtained his PhD in Physics in 2002 (University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris) under the supervision of Professor Serge Reynaud. He then joined the group “Quantum Optics and Quantum Information” of Professor J.P. (Han) Woerdman in the Huygens Laboratory at Leiden University, Netherlands, working on surface plasmon optics.
In 2004, he was recruited at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) to join the team of Professor Thomas Ebbesen at the Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS) in Strasbourg. Cyriaque Genet was promoted to the rank of CNRS director of research in 2016; his research interests are in the fields of nano-optics, optical forces, and chiral light-matter interactions.
Project - Chiral thermodynamics
October 2018 – September 2021
Chirality has been of profound scientific interest since the 19th century when it was understood, in particular by Louis Pasteur, that it affects fundamental interactions both in optics and chemistry. Today, there is a renewed interest in such discussions, from varying perspectives. With the discovery of complex light field topologies, new results that extend the notion of chirality and challenge long-lasting controversies have been brought to the forefront of optics. In chemistry too, the observation of spontaneous asymmetric generation of supramolecular chiral assemblies has emerged as a particularly attractive topic. Despite disparate approaches, one interestingly finds that similar ideas are currently followed in physics and chemistry in order to understand the new dynamic responses that can emerge from tailored chiral interactions.
In this context, the project intends to look at chiral light-chiral matter interactions through their thermodynamic signature. Thermodynamics effectively provides a playing field where it is possible (i) to explore the possibility to induce thermodynamic processes at the level of single chiral nano-objects trapped in chiral optical fields, and (ii) to study, with the appropriate optical tools, the thermodynamics at play in the spontaneous evolution of chiral molecular systems. Following such a path, the project aims at proposing a coherent framework for the description of various processes, ranging from stochastic physics to chemical kinetics. In return, this framework should help us in understanding how chirality can influence thermodynamics.
Biography post-doc - Samuel Albert
Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS)
Dr. Samuel Albert obtained his PhD in physics at the University of Paris-Saclay in 2016, where he carried out research on the non-linear dielectric response of materials near the glass transition under the supervision of Dr. François Ladieu at the Condensed Matter Physics laboratory (SPEC). He then joined the team of Dr. Caroline Crauste and Dr. Sergio Ciliberto at the Physics Laboratory of the École Normale Supérieure of Lyon to work on the measurement of the Casimir and critical Casimir effects using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM).
In 2019, he joined Dr. Cyriaque Genet’s team within the group of Professor Thomas Ebbesen at ISIS. His main research foci are chiral thermodynamics and weak optical forces measurement in an optical tweezer setup.
