Institut Néel

Reproductive health is the absence of illness or disability related to the reproductive system and its functions, and mental and social well-being.Reproductive health also means that people have a satisfying and safe sexual life, have the ability to reproduce, and have the freedom to decide whether to use their reproductive ability.This issue is often ignored for menopausal and post-menopausal older women, whose fertility is over.However, reproductive health should be regarded as the fundamental right of all men and women, young and old people.In this review, we aimed to address the problems of reproductive health of over 50 years old and older women.

Electromagnetically induced transparency is a quantum interference effect observed in atoms and molecules, in which the optical response of an atomic medium is controlled by an electromagnetic field. We demonstrated a form of induced transparency enabled by radiation-pressure coupling of an optical and a mechanical mode. A control optical beam tuned to a sideband transition of a micro-optomechanical system leads to destructive interference for the excitation of an intracavity probe field, inducing a tunable transparency window for the probe beam. Optomechanically induced transparency may be used for slowing and on-chip storage of light pulses via microfabricated optomechanical arrays.

An experimental method based on the Landau-Zener model was developed to measure very small tunnel splittings in molecular clusters of eight iron atoms, which at low temperature behave like a nanomagnet with a spin ground state of S = 10. The observed oscillations of the tunnel splittings as a function of the magnetic field applied along the hard anisotropy axis are due to topological quantum interference of two tunnel paths of opposite windings. Transitions between quantum numbers M = -S and (S - n), with n even or odd, revealed a parity effect that is analogous to the suppression of tunneling predicted for half-integer spins. This observation is direct evidence of the topological part of the quantum spin phase (Berry phase) in a magnetic system.

A large electric field at the surface of a ferromagnetic metal is expected to appreciably change its electron density. In particular, the metal's intrinsic magnetic properties, which are commonly regarded as fixed material constants, will be affected. This requires, however, that the surface has a strong influence on the material's properties, as is the case with ultrathin films. We demonstrated that the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of ordered iron-platinum (FePt) and iron-palladium (FePd) intermetallic compounds can be reversibly modified by an applied electric field when immersed in an electrolyte. A voltage change of -0.6 volts on 2-nanometer-thick films altered the coercivity by -4.5 and +1% in FePt and FePd, respectively. The modification of the magnetic parameters was attributed to a change in the number of unpaired d electrons in response to the applied electric field. Our device structure is general and should be applicable for characterization of other thin-film magnetic systems.

We present the all-sky Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) sources detected from the 29 month full-mission data. The catalogue (PSZ2) is the largest SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters yet produced and the deepest systematic all-sky surveyof galaxy clusters. It contains 1653 detections, of which 1203 are confirmed clusters with identified counterparts in external data sets, and is the first SZ-selected cluster survey containing >103 confirmed clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the survey selection function in terms of its completeness and statistical reliability, placing a lower limit of 83% on the purity. Using simulations, we find that the estimates of the SZ strength parameter Y5R500are robust to pressure-profile variation and beam systematics, but accurate conversion to Y500 requires the use of prior information on the cluster extent. We describe the multi-wavelength search for counterparts in ancillary data, which makes use of radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, and X-ray data sets, and which places emphasis on the robustness of the counterpart match. We discuss the physical properties of the new sample and identify a population of low-redshift X-ray under-luminous clusters revealed by SZ selection. These objects appear in optical and SZ surveys with consistent properties for their mass, but are almost absent from ROSAT X-ray selected samples.

Single-molecule magnets (SMMs) with a large spin reversal barrier have been recognized to exhibit slow magnetic relaxation that can lead to a magnetic hysteresis loop. Synthesis of highly stable SMMs with both large energy barriers and significantly slow relaxation times is challenging. Here, we report two highly stable and neutral Dy(III) classical coordination compounds with pentagonal bipyramidal local geometry that exhibit SMM behavior. Weak intermolecular interactions in the undiluted single crystals are first observed for mononuclear lanthanide SMMs by micro-SQUID measurements. The investigation of magnetic relaxation reveals the thermally activated quantum tunneling of magnetization through the third excited Kramers doublet, owing to the increased axial magnetic anisotropy and weaker transverse magnetic anisotropy. As a result, pronounced magnetic hysteresis loops up to 14 K are observed, and the effective energy barrier (Ueff = 1025 K) for relaxation of magnetization reached a breakthrough among the SMMs.

Because the refractive index for hard x rays is slightly different from unity, the optical phase of a beam is affected by transmission through an object. Phase images can be obtained with extreme instrumental simplicity by simple propagation provided the beam is coherent. But, unlike absorption, the phase is not simply related to image brightness. A holographic reconstruction procedure combining images taken at different distances from the specimen was developed. It results in quantitative phase mapping and, through association with three-dimensional reconstruction, in holotomography, the complete three-dimensional mapping of the density in a sample. This tool in the characterization of materials at the micrometer scale is uniquely suited to samples with low absorption contrast and radiation-sensitive systems.

The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which is dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched on 14 May 2009. It scanned the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously between 12 August 2009 and 23 October 2013. In February 2015, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the second set of cosmology products based ondata from the entire Planck mission, including both temperature and polarization, along with a set of scientific and technical papers and a web-based explanatory supplement. This paper gives an overview of the main characteristics of the data and the data products in the release, as well as the associated cosmological and astrophysical science results and papers. The data products include maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, diffuse foregrounds in temperature and polarization, catalogues of compact Galactic and extragalactic sources (including separate catalogues of Sunyaev-Zeldovich clusters and Galactic cold clumps), and extensive simulations of signals and noise used in assessing uncertainties and the performance of the analysis methods. The likelihood code used to assess cosmological models against the Planck data is described, along with a CMB lensing likelihood. Scientific results include cosmological parameters derived from CMB power spectra, gravitational lensing, and cluster counts, as well as constraints on inflation, non-Gaussianity, primordial magnetic fields, dark energy, and modified gravity, and new results on low-frequency Galactic foregrounds.

We report the results of a joint analysis of data from BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck. BICEP2 and Keck Array have observed the same approximately 400 deg^{2} patch of sky centered on RA 0 h, Dec. -57.5°. The combined maps reach a depth of 57 nK deg in Stokes Q and U in a band centered at 150 GHz. Planck has observed the full sky in polarization at seven frequencies from 30 to 353 GHz, but much less deeply in any given region (1.2 μK deg in Q and U at 143 GHz). We detect 150×353 cross-correlation in B modes at high significance. We fit the single- and cross-frequency power spectra at frequencies ≥150 GHz to a lensed-ΛCDM model that includes dust and a possible contribution from inflationary gravitational waves (as parametrized by the tensor-to-scalar ratio r), using a prior on the frequency spectral behavior of polarized dust emission from previous Planck analysis of other regions of the sky. We find strong evidence for dust and no statistically significant evidence for tensor modes. We probe various model variations and extensions, including adding a synchrotron component in combination with lower frequency data, and find that these make little difference to the r constraint. Finally, we present an alternative analysis which is similar to a map-based cleaning of the dust contribution, and show that this gives similar constraints. The final result is expressed as a likelihood curve for r, and yields an upper limit r_{0.05}<0.12 at 95% confidence. Marginalizing over dust and r, lensing B modes are detected at 7.0σ significance.

A meeting of two magnetic worlds: The giant (ca. 4.2 nm) {Mn84} cluster, shown, has a torus structure and is a single-molecule magnet (SMM). It represents a meeting of the molecular (bottom-up) and classical (top-down) approaches to nanoscale magnetic materials, and it crystallizes as nanotubular stacks.

Roll the Dy's: Two aggregates made up of dysprosium triangles (one example is shown) display a vanishing susceptibility at low temperature, unprecedented in systems comprising an odd number of unpaired electrons. Despite having a near non-magnetic ground state, behavior typical of a single-molecule magnet is observed for the thermally populated excited state.

Phase objects are readily imaged through Fresnel diffraction in the hard x-ray beams of third-generation synchrotron radiation sources such as the ESRF, due essentially to the very small angular size of the source. Phase objects can lead to spurious contrast in x-ray diffraction images (topographs) of crystals. It is shown that this contrast can be eliminated through random phase plates, which provide an effective way of tailoring the angular size of the source. The possibilities of this very simple technique for imaging phase objects in the hard x-ray range are explored experimentally and discussed. They appear very promising, as shown in particular by the example of a piece of human vertebra, and could be extended to phase tomography.

Recent advances in addressing isolated nuclear spins have opened up a path toward using nuclear-spin-based quantum bits. Local magnetic fields are normally used to coherently manipulate the state of the nuclear spin; however, electrical manipulation would allow for fast switching and spatially confined spin control. Here, we propose and demonstrate coherent single nuclear spin manipulation using electric fields only. Because there is no direct coupling between the spin and the electric field, we make use of the hyperfine Stark effect as a magnetic field transducer at the atomic level. This quantum-mechanical process is present in all nuclear spin systems, such as phosphorus or bismuth atoms in silicon, and offers a general route toward the electrical control of nuclear-spin-based devices.

We show experimentally that multilayer graphene grown on the carbon terminated SiC(0001[over ]) surface contains rotational stacking faults related to the epitaxial condition at the graphene-SiC interface. Via first-principles calculation, we demonstrate that such faults produce an electronic structure indistinguishable from an isolated single graphene sheet in the vicinity of the Dirac point. This explains prior experimental results that showed single-layer electronic properties, even for epitaxial graphene films tens of layers thick.

A strong substrate-graphite bond is found in the first all-carbon layer by density functional theory calculations and x-ray diffraction for few graphene layers grown epitaxially on SiC. This first layer is devoid of graphene electronic properties and acts as a buffer layer. The graphene nature of the film is recovered by the second carbon layer grown on both the (0001) and (0001[over]) 4H-SiC surfaces. We also present evidence of a charge transfer that depends on the interface geometry. Hence the graphene is doped and a gap opens at the Dirac point after three Bernal stacked carbon layers are formed.

The high axiality and Ising exchange interaction efficiently suppress quantum tunneling of magnetization of an asymmetric dinuclear Dy(III) complex, as revealed by combined experimental and theoretical investigations. Two distinct regimes of blockage of magnetization, one originating from the blockage at individual Dy sites and the other due to the exchange interaction between the sites, are separated for the first time. The latter contribution is found to be crucial, allowing an increase of the relaxation time by 3 orders of magnitude.

We present cluster counts and corresponding cosmological constraints from the Planck full mission data set. Our catalogue consists of 439 clusters detected via their Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signal down to a signal-to-noise ratio of 6, and is more than a factor of 2 larger than the 2013 Planck cluster cosmology sample. The counts are consistent with those from 2013 and yield compatible constraints under the same modelling assumptions. Taking advantage of the larger catalogue, we extend our analysis to the two-dimensional distribution in redshift and signal-to-noise. We use mass estimates from two recent studies of gravitational lensing of background galaxies by Planck clusters to provide priors on the hydrostatic bias parameter, (1−b). In addition, we use lensing of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations by Planck clusters as an independent constraint on this parameter. These various calibrations imply constraints on the present-day amplitude of matter fluctuations in varying degrees of tension with those from the Planck analysis of primary fluctuations in the CMB; for the lowest estimated values of (1−b) the tension is mild, only a little over one standard deviation, while it remains substantial (3.7σ) for the largest estimated value. We also examine constraints on extensions to the base flat ΛCDM model by combining the cluster and CMB constraints. The combination appears to favour non-minimal neutrino masses, but this possibility does little to relieve the overall tension because it simultaneously lowers the implied value of the Hubble parameter, thereby exacerbating the discrepancy with most current astrophysical estimates. Improving the precision of cluster mass calibrations from the current 10%-level to 1% would significantly strengthen these combined analyses and provide a stringent test of the base ΛCDM model.

For Dirac electrons the Klein paradox implies that the confinement is difficult to achieve with an electrostatic potential although it can be of great importance for graphene-based devices. Here, ab initio and tight-binding approaches are combined and show that the wave function of Dirac electrons can be localized in rotated graphene bilayers due to the Moire pattern. This localization of wave function is maximum in the limit of the small rotation angle between the two layers.

Isolated hydrogen atoms absorbed on graphene are predicted to induce magnetic moments. Here we demonstrate that the adsorption of a single hydrogen atom on graphene induces a magnetic moment characterized by a ~20-millielectron volt spin-split state at the Fermi energy. Our scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments, complemented by first-principles calculations, show that such a spin-polarized state is essentially localized on the carbon sublattice opposite to the one where the hydrogen atom is chemisorbed. This atomically modulated spin texture, which extends several nanometers away from the hydrogen atom, drives the direct coupling between the magnetic moments at unusually long distances. By using the STM tip to manipulate hydrogen atoms with atomic precision, it is possible to tailor the magnetism of selected graphene regions.

We implemented a self-consistent, real-space x-ray absorption calculation within the FDMNES code. We performed the self-consistency within several schemes and identified which one is the most appropriate. We show a method that allows a rigorous setting of the Fermi level and thus an estimation of the energy cutoff for the identification and elimination of the occupied states. We investigated what are the structures where one can afford performing the self-consistent calculation at a lesser cluster radius than the absorption one. We exemplify the effects of the self-consistency at the K-edge and for several reference cases, including the copper Cu and the rutile TiO(2). We verified the robustness of our procedure on the transitional 3d and 4d elements. Although amelioration can be noticed, the self-consistency performed at the K-edge does not bring a major improvement of the calculated spectra. Taking into consideration a non-self-consistent, non-spherical potential gives better results than a self-consistent muffin-tin approximation calculation.