This project aims at investigating the chemistry of a-aminoendoperoxides. This class of reactive molecules has a great potential for the development of powerful and original methods in organic synthesis, and for applications to the synthesis of complex nitrogen-containing polycyclic systems. Their reactivity has been scarcely studied so far and remains essentially unexplored. The foundations of our proposition lie on the scientific expertise of the three partners, whose know-how will be engaged in a synergic fashion. Beyond the synthesis of aminocyclopropanes by the Kulinkovich-de Meijere reaction, that we know well, and the electrochemical oxidation method that we have recently developed, we will focus a great deal of our efforts to new, particularly ambitious aspects of this chemistry: the improvement and the extension of the Kulinkovich-de Meijere reaction using the advantages of electrochemistry, the generalisation of the controlled oxidation of cyclopropylamines to other types of cyclopropanes with a low ionisation potential, or the development of alternative methods relying on photocatalytic processes, even more liable to fulfil the requirements of the current global context targeted towards sustainable development. We will synthesise a range of novel natural product-like or drug-like molecules. Their biological activities will be systematically scrutinised.

This project is concerned with the analysis and modeling of long period motions and their effects on large-scale infrastructures such as high-rise buildings, liquid-storage tanks and long-span bridges. Intense long-period ground motions are usually generated at large distances from the source and consist primarily of surface waves that arise when seismic waves encounter sedimentary deposits. The project aims at developing a methodology based on the physics of surface waves, to describe the evolution of the spectral content of the ground motion at a site located in a sedimentary basin. 3D numerical soil-structure models that capture the particular dynamic characteristics of real large-scale structures will be developed for assessments of their performance when subjected to the ground motion model. The results of the project will allow the development of tools and guidelines to be used by the earthquake engineering community for more resilient designs of large-scale infrastructures.

Laser-Plasma Accelerators (LPAs) have the capability to produce electric fields exceeding 100 GV/m, that is about three orders of magnitude larger than those obtained by conventional radio-frequency accelerators. They could thus allow for a drastic decrease of the size of accelerators for scientific, medical and industrial applications. Their extreme field gradients make also of LPAs promising candidates for future high energy colliders. The objective of the project is to explore novel laser-plasma coupling concepts for increasing the energy of stable and high-quality electron beams well beyond the state-of-the-art. These novel concepts rely on an innovative reflective optic, the axiparabola, which merges the advantages of parabola mirrors and axilenses and allow to produce long and high-intensity focal lines with a tunable laser velocity. At low laser energy, axiparabolas will be used to generate a stable, sustainable and damage-free plasma waveguide. The high-intensity beam which drives the LPA will be coupled into the so-formed waveguide in order to face diffraction and extend the distance over which electrons are accelerated. Axiparabolas will then be used with a single high-power laser to accelerate electrons. Here we will take advantage of axiparabolas to manipulate the velocity of the laser energy-peak. This unique ability to produce superluminal and time varying velocities opens a new area of study. In the simplest case, we expect an increase of the electron energy by a factor of 8, compared to a regular parabola setup. The optimized scheme could lead to the production of 300 GeV beams with a 10 PW laser. In both scenarios, performances will be optimized by shaping the axiparabola surface, adding a spatial phase or introducing spatio-temporal coupling. Proof of principles and exploratory experiments will be run on the Salle Jaune facility at LOA, then implemented on a PW laser facility.

Producing a radiation source that simultaneously combines, compactness, high brightness, femtosecond duration, tunability over the entire x-ray spectrum, and micrometer source size, is a major challenge in x-ray science. Such a source does not exist while it would satisfy the need of a wide variety of applications, and could bring, into a university scale laboratory, a powerful tool to explore the properties of matter. For example, femtosecond x-rays, fully synchronized with laser pulses, can reveal the fastest transient atomic or molecular dynamics. Micrometer source size would provide an unprecedented increase of the space resolution to bring into light structural details in materials for broad applications. High energy radiation, gamma-rays, will allow to radiograph objects opaque for standard x-rays sources. The FENICS project aims at developing the first source gathering these properties. The project is based on the very promising results of a first experiment, performed in summer 2011 at Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, where we have demonstrated a method to generate an intense source of high energy x-rays, delivering highly collimated beams, with high brightness, micrometer source size, and femtosecond duration. Our source is relies on an innovative, robust, and very simple scheme of Compton backscattering, where relativistic electrons from a laser plasma accelerator scatter off an intense laser pulse. The goal of the FENICS project is now to exploit the remarkable potential of this novel source. We will demonstrate that it is possible to produce, efficiently and in a dramaticaly simple way, bright femtosecond x-ray beams, emitted from a micrometer source, tunable from the soft x-ray to the gamma-ray range, with compact laser systems. We will as well perform first applications experiments and show that the source can meet the needs of users. The source developed within FENICS will be more than 5 orders of magnitude brighter than similar sources based on large scale accelerators (millions dollars project are funded to develop these sources, mainly in united states) and will have a source size about 100 times smaller. If we now compared with the most recent laser driven x-ray sources in plasmas, such as Betatron radiation, our novel source requires electrons energies more than 100 times lower, it can produce radiation up to 100 times higher, and it offers the possibility to be nearly monochromatic and tunable. The development proposed will therefore be a significant progress and could mark the emergence of a novel generation of x-ray sources. The research program is ambitious but realizable within three years because it is built on preliminary results, and on the experience of our team, composed of dynamic and young researchers, in laser plasma accelerator and x-ray radiation. We apply for the support of the ANR because a dedicated fund is now essential to develop this novel thematic. We are convinced that we are about to produce the most advanced x-ray source ever produced from laser-plasma interaction and this will have a strong impact in the actual context, where many projects are funded to develop sources of femtosecond x-ray radiation and their applications.

This proposal exploits novel chemistry developed in the applicants' laboratory to fashion a new family of functional and reversibly cross-linkable polyamides with wide-ranging applications. The approach hinges on the rapid construction of reactive bis-thiolactones, which react readily with diamines to give polyamides with pendent free thiol groups. These can reversibly form disulfide bonds leading to shape memory materials and mimics of natural hair fibers, and can impart self-healing properties or improved adhesion to various substrates (metal, silica, glass, wood, leather etc.). The thiols can be used to introduce almost any functional group, allowing a very broad flexibility in the design and tuning of the physico-chemical properties of the polymers.