Every year, researchers, students and industrialists come together for the Prix Jean Jerphagnon, which rewards innovation in optics and photonics. This year, the jury and its president, Alain Aspect of the Academies of Science and Technology, selected two winners. The ceremony took place as part of the Rendez-vous Optique-Photonique pour l'industrie du futur organized by the Institut Mines-Télécom and the Académie des Technologies.
The Jean Jerphagnon Prize The Jean Jerphagnon Prize, organized by the ITM and the Académie des Technologies with the support of the Fondation Mines-Télécom, is intended to honor the memory and extend the work of Jean Jerphagnon, a telecoms engineer, inventor and researcher who died in 2005, and who led a remarkable career, from basic research to innovation, in the field of optics and photonics. The prize, endowed with €12,000 per year, aims to promote technological innovation and the dissemination of optics and photonics in all fields of application, by rewarding a researcher who has not only carried out cutting-edge research, but has also succeeded in transferring it.
It is awarded to a researcher or engineer aged 40 or under who is carrying out an innovative project of high scientific value or industrial potential, marking a milestone in his or her career, and involving at least one element of optics or photonics.
Jury president Alain Aspect, professor at the Institut d'Optique and member of the Académie des Technologies, awarded two prizes at the July 7 ceremony. The Jury was made up of Jean-Louis de Bougrenet (IMT Atlantique), René Essiambre (Nokia Bell-Labs), Thierry Georges (Oxxius), Jean-Pierre Huignard (exThalesTRT), Caroline Kulcsár (Institut d'Optique Graduate school), Hervé Lefevre (iXBlue), Pascale Nouchi (Thales Research & Technology), Pascale Senellart-Mardon (C2N-CNRS), Jean-Louis Martin (Institut d'Optique Graduate school).
Technology transfer and innovation stemming from academic research are plentiful, as illustrated by the candidates for the Jean Jerphagnon prize, who often lead entrepreneurial projects. The prize is intended to be a crossroads between the worlds of research and industry. The Rendez-vous de l'Optique-Photonique pour l'industrie du futur is a natural framework for bringing together these players to discuss the state of the art and the major advances to come.
Emmanuel Hugot - Research on curved sensors
The work of this astrophysicist, a CNRS research fellow at the Marseille astrophysics laboratory, focuses on the manufacture of free-form optics (digital machining of optics), active optics, curved/free-form sensors, and the use of 3D printing methods.
Through his start-up Curve, of which he is Scientific Director, he has developed the first industrial process for producing curved and free-form sensors. Curving sensors makes it possible to manufacture lighter, more compact systems, limiting the need to add corrective optics (lenses) by up to 50 %. These sensors deliver enhanced performance: the field of view can be increased, image quality and homogeneity improved, vignetting (darkening of the image periphery) eliminated by design, and chromatism reduced. The applications are manifold, as imaging is ubiquitous in many research and consumer devices: scientific imaging, biomedical imaging, embedded imaging (drones or space for earth observation and environmental monitoring), smartphone photography, autonomous vehicles, etc.
Following the transfer of know-how via CNRS-Innovation, Emmanuel Hugo was able to industrialize the manufacture of curved sensors, thereby strengthening France's position in the optics industry against Germany and the United States. The CURVE start-up is supported by the European H2020 program.
Yoann Zaouter - Ultrashort pulse laser
Over the past twenty-five years, the steady increase in scientific and industrial applications has driven the search for more efficient and reliable ultra-short-pulse laser sources. Yb lasers based on Ytterbium (Yb) technology have a limited pulse duration. Today, a growing number of applications require faster pulse durations while retaining the advantages of Yb sources.
In 2008, Yoann Zaouter joined Amplitude Laser's R&D unit, where he developed the first generation of ultrafast fiber laser architectures for industrial and scientific applications. These are widely used in the semiconductor, consumer electronics, display and medical industries. Since 2009, he has headed a joint R&D laboratory shared between the company and Laboratoire Charles Fabry at the Institut d'Optique. His current research, for which he has been awarded the Prix Jean Jerphagnon 2020, focuses on ultrafast and nonlinear optics.
He is interested in the reduction of pulse duration at the output of industrial femtosecond lasers, applied to the generation of EUV (extreme ultraviolet radiation). This new generation of time-compressed industrial ultra-short laser sources is applied to the generation of EUV radiation via the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process. This new generation replaces the Ti-Sapphire amplifier chains previously used, which no longer offer the necessary parameters (average power, repetition rate, beam quality). These time-shortened laser sources offer a technological leap forward for both scientific and industrial applications. In the short term, his efforts are focused on two applications: angle- and time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES) for the scientific market, and mask inspection for semiconductor photolithography for the industrial market. Yann Zaouter obtained a PhD in Laser, Matter and Nanoscience from the University of Bordeaux in 2005.
The winners competed against two other finalists:
- Emmanuel Lhuillier is working on the development of optoelectronic components based on colloidal nanocrystals. In collaboration with New Imaging Technologies (NIT), he is developing a new generation of low-cost infrared sensors whose active layer is made of nanocrystals.
- Rémy Braive is a lecturer at the University of Paris, specializing in nano-opto-mechanics. His research focuses on photonic crystals, applied to the study of nonlinear dynamics and photon-photon interaction in microwave oscillators.
Applications for the Prix Jean Jerphagnon 2021 are now open until October 21, 2021.
Rendez-vous Technologies Optique-Photonique pour l'industrie du futur 2021 organized by Institut Mines-Télécom and Académie des Technologies
Jean-Louis de Bougrenet, a professor at IMT Atlantique, hosted the event, which aimed to raise awareness among the scientific community of the major industrial challenges and changes in the field of optics and photonics, with a view to the industry of the future. This 2021 edition pays tribute to the prize, with contributions from two former winners.
Nathalie Picqué, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, presented her work on frequency-comb lasers for molecular spectroscopy.
She studies precision spectroscopy, molecular physics and laser technology. She pioneered the field of broadband frequency comb spectroscopy, with initial experimental results in 2005. Her pioneering work, recognized and encouraged by the 2008 Prix Jean Jerphagnon, is now attracting interest. Several teams are perfecting the techniques demonstrated by Nathalie Picqué to produce precise, fast and miniaturized spectroscopic instruments for applications ranging from fundamental research in molecular physics to biomolecular and medical imaging. With her group, Nathalie Picqué continues to push back the frontiers of optical frequency combs, interferometry and molecular spectroscopy.
Vincent Studer, co-founder of Alveole, presented his device for prototyping and observing 3D cellular models.
He is a CNRS researcher at the Institut Interdisciplinaire de Neurosciences (IINS) at the University of Bordeaux. His research focuses on the influence of the microenvironment on intra- and intercellular mechanisms, with applications in cellular and medical biology, notably in oncology, immunology and neurobiology. He is the author of more than ten patents. In 2010, he co-founded the Alvéole company to promote his work, for which he was awarded the Prix Jean Jerphagnon in 2017.
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