Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Pulsés CNRS – INSA

Summary of the scientific activities at the LNCMP
The scientific activities at the LNCMP cover a large area of condensed matter physics and go even
beyond that. Over the last four years, they have resulted in 170 journal papers (‘ACL’), of which 21
Physical Review Letters and 6 papers in Nature, Nature Physics and Science. In view of the small
number of scientists (9 equivalent full time permanent scientists in 2008), this is an excellent result,
proving the large added value of pulsed magnetic fields as a research tool and the high quality of the
LNCMP installation and researchers.
In the area of metals and superconductors, the first observation of quantum oscillations in high T c
superconductors was certainly a highlight, generally acclaimed by the international scientific
community. The study of quantum oscillations in organic conductors has allowed a better
understanding of their Fermi surface.
The activities in nanophysics are focused on (i) (magneto)-transport properties of individually
addressed carbon nanotubes and exfoliated graphene and graphene nano-ribbons, and (ii) NIR
magneto-optical properties of carbon nanotubes in solution and epitaxial graphene. The activity in the
domain of disordered systems consists mainly in the studies of the conduction mechanisms involved in
macroscopic samples which conserve its nanometric-scale properties, that is networks of nano-objects
obtained by self-organization on a surface.
The first results of X ray and neutron scattering in high pulsed magnetic fields are coming out, and the
LNCMP effort in this area is generally considered as pioneering. It allows the determination of
structural and magnetic phases in high magnetic fields that cannot be addressed by any other means.
Pulsed magnetic fields also find applications outside condensed matter physics. The LNCMP is
pioneering its use in experiments testing quantum electrodynamics. A setup to measure the long
predicted magnetic birefringence of the quantum vacuum is under construction, and experiments on
axion generation have allowed to push the existence limits of such particles to new values.
The activity in the semiconductor domain covers essentially three different aspects: one is focussed on
the electronic bandstructure of semiconductors, mainly low dimensional systems, through the
investigation of high magnetic field quantum effects on transport and spectroscopy in the VIS-FIR
range, a second research axis is devoted to the study of the correlations in strongly interacting 2D
electron systems and the third one concerns the properties of magnetic semiconductors.
All of the scientific activities outlined above are supported by the general support group, in terms of
optics, electronics, sample preparation etc. This group also strongly contributes to the development of
new experimental techniques for pulsed field measurements, examples of which are contact less
resistance measurements by means of a tunnel diode oscillator and pulsed magnetic field NMR.
More details on these activities can be found below, or in even greater detail in the LNCMP annual
reports (www.lncmp.org).
Summary of the other activities at the LNCMP
On average, the LNCMP hosts around 7 PhD or master students plus several stagiaires from
engineering schools. Several members of the LNCMP staff teach at INSA Toulouse, UPS and ISAE.
Several national and international meetings have been organized by the LNCMP during the last four
years; a list can be found below.
The installation of the LCMI has some inherent risks, which in combination with the intrinsic presence
of inexperienced external users, makes it important to pay special attention to security issues. The
activities of the security officer (‘ACMO’) of the LNCMP to reduce the risks as much as possible are
detailed below.
This report is organized as follows: A short account of all the technical and scientific activities is
given below. The annexes 1-5 give details on security, training, popularization, the publication list
2005-2009 and the organizational chart..
Toulouse July 16 th 2009 G. Rikken
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