Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay

20 October 2021

CinNapht : a new fluorophore family

A collaboration between ICSN, ISMO (SYSTEMAE group) and PPSM has shed light on the spectroscopy and photophysical properties of a new fluorophore family obtained by fusing cinnoline to naphthalimide to give a donor-acceptor system called CinNapht.

4 July 2021

In search of hidden order

All changes of state in matter, like the freezing of water into ice, are characterized by some physical parameter of the system becoming ordered. But in some exceptional cases, the parameter describing the ordered state remains unknown, hiding new physics. Now, an international collaboration led by researchers at ISMO has unveiled how, in one of such mysterious “hidden-order” phases, the interactions between quantum electronic transform under the effect of chemical pressure. This finding sheds new light into what physics is cloaked behind the “hidden-order” veil. Their results have been published in PNAS.

24 June 2021

Death of Roland Lefebvre

We have just learned the very sad news of the passing of our friend and colleague on June 20, 2021. Roland Lefebvre pursued his brilliant research careers at the CNRS Laboratory of Molecular Photophysics, of which Roland was one of the founders with Sydney Leach, François Legay and Lars Lindqvist, as well as its director from 1982 to 1988.
Professor Roland Lefebvre’s work has focused on the theoretical aspects of Molecular Physics, from electronic correlation and hyperfine structures, paramagnetic resonance, superradiance and photon echoes, quantum collision theory and radiation-matter interaction, to problems of control by intense electromagnetic fields of time and energy-resolved electron-nuclear dynamics.

3 January 2020

Manipulating electrons with light

Researchers from ISMO, University of Luxembourg, University of Konstanz (Germany) and CFM (San Sebastian, Spain) used light to control the dynamics of electrons in a metallic nanocircuit on spatial scales and atomic time. The results of the study have been published in Nature Physics (2019)

5 December 2018

The Etoiles de l’Europe’s special prize has been awarded to Ruxandra Gref

Since 2013, the Étoiles de l’Europe (Stars of Europe) award has shined a light on European initiatives launched by French scientists. Rewarding both scientific expertise and the capacity to coordinate large international teams, this prize is given each year to twelve researchers and their respective projects. The 2018 edition, which was held on December 5 at the Musée du quai Branly — Jacques Chirac, included Ruxandra Gref, Research director at ISMO, for the use of nanoparticles to bolster antibiotics ( ITN Cyclon Hit)

4 December 2018

Death of Michel Barat

It is with great sadness and deep sorrow that we learnt of the passing of Michel Barat on November 28, 2018 at the age of 80.
Michel Barat played a prominent role in Physics and Chemistry at Orsay (Université Paris-Sud). He found the Laboratoire des Collisions Atomiques et Moléculaires (LCAM) in 1977.

26 October 2018

First Bose-Einstein condensation in space

A Bose-Einstein condensate was created for the first time in space by a team of physicists from the University of Hanover (Germany), in collaboration with theoretical physicists from ISMO (University Paris-Sud-CNRS, Orsay, France). This work has been published in Nature