A PEEK ON the lab

Laboratoire national de métrologie et d’essais (LNE, France)

Contacts: François PIQUEMAL, francois.piquemal@lne.fr – Khaled KAJA khaled.kaja@lne.fr – Nicolas FELTIN, nicolas.feltin@lne.fr – Nolwenn FLEURENCE, nolwenn.fleurence@lne.fr – Sebastien DUCOURTIEUX, Sebastien.Ducourtieux@lne.fr – Jose MORAN, jose.moran@lne.fr

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LAB and RESEARCH

Nano Electrical Metrology group (NAEL) at LNE

The laboratory is located in Trappes in the Ile-de-France region, Paris. LNE encompasses several poles of metrology expertise serving industry, academia and society on the national and international levels.

The Nano Electrical Metrology group (NAEL) at LNE is the active partner involved in the NanoWire project.

The group has more than 30 years of cumulative international experience in scanning probe microscopy methods focused essentially of the local measurements of electrical properties of matter at the nanoscale.

NAEL-LNE will offer his expertise to work mainly on the metrology of capacitances, dielectric properties, dopant concentrations, current characteristics and surface potential measurements.

A large spectrum of methods will be covered in the NanoWires project such as scanning microwave microscopy (SMM), conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM).


Modulated PhotoThermal Radiometry (MPTR) technique.


Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM) technique.

Nano Thermal Properties Metrology (LNE - Trappes)

The LNE’s thermal properties department develops capabilities to insure traceable measurements of thermal properties in a wide range of temperature (up to 3000°C for some application) at macroscale.

Studied thermal properties are thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, specific heat, emissivity.

More recently, our team has developed new capabilities dedicated to thermal properties characterisation at the micro and nanoscale:

  • Modulated PhotoThermal Radiometry (MPTR) technique for thermal conductivity and thermal resistance measurement at micro and sub-micro scales (thin films).

  • Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM) technique for thermal conductivity measurements at nanoscale.

Within the framework of the project, our team will improve its SThM to characterise thermal properties of nanowires:

  • Improvement of calibration procedures

  • Decrease of uncertainty

  • Development of specific protocol for thermal conductivity measurements on nanowires.

PMMA sample used as thermal conductivity calibration material for the calibration of the resistive probe. Several calibration materials will be studied to establish a thermal conductivity calibration curve.

SThM resistive probe above the sample before the contact between the probe and the surface sample. The red light is due to laser used to control the contact.

PEOPLE and LIFE

Expert and young researchers at work in the CARMEN platform

This unique large platform is equipped with a clean room for nanomaterials characterisation with especially a commercial AFM, a home-made metrological AFM, a SEM/STEM/EDX microscope, a SThM and facilities for sample handling and preparation.

Sarah has removed the protective enclosure of the SThM and is disconnecting the probe before introducing new samples.

Sarah is controlling the displacement of the sample under the SThM probe.

Nolwenn is analysing thermal contrast image on graphene oxide layers.

Damien Richert, PhD candidate in the NAEL AFM laboratory working on the Keyseight scanning microwave microscope (SMM) placed in an MBraun glove box.

Working on the Scanning Microwave Microscope (SMM)

SMM allows the measurement of the local electromagnetic properties of materials depending mainly on their dielectric properties. It is mainly used to determine the metrological traceability of dopant concentrations of the semiconducting nanowires.

The glove box ensures a highly accurate control of the measurements’ environment. A condition of primary importance for the metrology of electrical measurements at the nanoscale.