With Philippe Marmottant as a principal investigator, we have obtained a major founding from the European Council to study the foundamentals and applications of acoustically excited bubbles (As metamaterials, contrast agents, etc.). This 5 years ERC program called "Bubbleboost" ended April 2019.
Current activities
Since Dec. 2017, I work as the CTO of Kapflex, a company I co-founded with Alexandre Delorme and Alix Duclos to offer our level and quality sensor technology to various users.
See video on Youtube
Past research activities
With main collaborator Philippe Marmottant, my activities mostly concern the development of micro-acoustofluidics techniques
to manipulate objects in the micron range size (bubbles, droplets, cells and microorganisms,…)
We make extensive use of soft lithography techniques (on PDMS elastomer) to design artificial microchannels geometries.
Acoustic tweezers
S.B.Q. Tran , P. Marmottant P., and P. Thibault, M. Mathieu, P. Marmottant. "Fast acoustic tweezers for the two-dimensional manipulation of individual particles in microfluidic channels" Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 114103 (2012)
See video on Youtube
The ultrasonic dance of bubbles
D. Rabaud, P. Thibault, M. Mathieu, P. Marmottant. "Acoustically bound microfluidic crystal" Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 13401 (2011)
See video on Youtube
Recent students
D. M. Diallo (2016) "Etude de la friction en paroi d’une bulle sous champ acoustique" 1st year licence
Th. Combriat (2015), : « Hydrodynamique du mélange accéléré par la pulsation collective d’un réseau de microbulles ».
B. Rebouillat (2015), ENS Cachan : « Mise en évidence de mouvement de rotation sur une plaque vibrée ».
B. Mondet (2014), L3 Mécanique, Grenoble : « Ondes acoustiques de surface ».
N. Jaramillo-Ruiz (2013), Ing. Biomédical Medellin, Colombie. Master 2 TIC et Santé Montpellier : « Pinces acoustiques pour la manipulation de cellules ».
P. Sharma (2012), Master 2 Nanoscience et NanoTech, Dehli Uni., India : « Micromanipulation and streaming using Ultrasound ».
PhDs Th. Combriat (10/2015-9/2018) M2 Paris-Sud Orsay. with Ph. Marmottant : « Comportements collectifs d’un réseau de micro-bulles excitées acoustiquement ».
I. Bernard (10/2013-9-2016) ENS Cachan. Thèse de normalien co-dirigée avec Ph. Marmottant : « Manipulation de particules micrométriques par écoulements redressés et forces de radiation générés par des ondes de surface ».
F. Mekki-Berrada (10/2012-9/2015) Ingénieure ESPCI. Thèse région co-dirigée avec Ph. Marmottant (Liphy) : « Effet laser acoustique dans un réseau de bulles en géométrie microfluidique ».
Technology transfer activity
Kapflex Sensors
With two associates, we are founding Kapflex, a company that will propose our technology to various users.
See video on Youtube
Since 2005, I have been working on the development of capacitive level sensors that can work in cryogenic and other hiarsh environments.
This led to a first patent : Planar capacitive device for measuring liquid levels : see the international patent This invention has recently been tested in a rocket tank within the HX-G program by Air liquide DTA. (see description p.4 in the Cryoscope, issue n°49), where it is explained that they are "new level gauges for liquid oxygen and hydrogen, compact and easily integrated into the tanks, while also being longer to collect more information."
Teaching activities
I am very active in the instruction of future physic teachers and more generally I developed some expertise about education at University level. (One key date has been this meeting at the french Academy of Sciences.)
In this context, I try to go beyond an empirical approach, in order to base my activity of researches in the field of education. These include old references by John Dewey or George Kelly like his comprehensive work "psychology of personal constructs" and more recent works by Stanislas Dehaene and many other authors .
In this context, I gave many courses at the License, Master, and organised curricula at PhD level, with special emphasises on subjects like evaluation, didactics of Physics, etc.
D. M. Diallo (2016) "Etude de la friction en paroi d’une bulle sous champ acoustique" 1st year licence
