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Cheryl Feuillet-Palma
Cheryl Feuillet-Palma is associate professor at ESPCI. She is a specialist of superconducting materials. Her work focuses on nanoscale devices based on superconducting thin-film.
Cheryl Feuillet-Palma is associate professor at ESPCI. She is a specialist of superconducting materials. Her work focuses on nanoscale devices based on superconducting thin-film.
In 2001, a new kind of detection principle was developed using an ultra-thin NbN superconducting nanowire. These detectors were soon on the market. Despite the strong interest generated by their unrivalled performance at very low temperatures, many questions remain unanswered, such as the in-depth understanding of the mechanism underlying the matter-radiation interaction, and the possibility of creating these detectors from any type of superconducting material. It is in this perspective that my recent work and forthcoming experiments are focused, on devices based on ultra-fine high-temperature superconductors. The main objectives are to produce high-Tc superconductor nanowires, YBa2Cu3O7-δ and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ, to propose a single-photon detector operating at moderate cryogenic temperatures, and to study the microscopic detection mechanism. To carry out this work, I was awarded an ANR JCJC Hector (High Temperature Superconductors for single photon detection). Part of my work concerns the broadband microwave response of a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ monolayer controlled by electrostatic field effect. Another part concerns recent work on the realization of resonant cavities in YBa2Cu3O7-δ, which will make it possible to realize kinetic inductance detectors in cuprate, or to measure the current-phase relationship in an RF SQUID.
After studying at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Cheryl Feuillet-Palma carried out her experimental thesis work in the mesoscopic physics group at LPENS.
During her thesis, C. Feuillet-Palma focused on quantum effects in spin-polarized transport. This internationally competitive subject required both extensive experimental expertise in sample fabrication (nanotube growth and electron nanolithography) and low-noise current measurements (Nat. Phys. 2009), as well as a theoretical approach generalizing to spin-dependent transport in Landauer-Büttiker scattering matrices. Her work has enabled her to demonstrate that, for the first time, the orbital phase of the electron wavefunction can be coupled with spin. This artificial spin-orbit coupling offers new methods for manipulating electronic spin in nanostructures, a significant step in the field of quantum information. She continued her training with a post-doc at the Paris-Cité University. Her research focused on the study of signatures in the transport of light-matter coupling in semiconductor structures inserted in double-metal cavities. She has developed a new type of very sub-wavelength THz optical cavities, enabling the strength of light-matter coupling to be increased to ultra-strong coupling. Since December 2011, C. Feuillet-Palma has been an associate professor at LPEM, ESPCI. Her work focuses on nanometric devices based on thin-film superconductors.
