The Aimé-Cotton Laboratory () or LAC, located in

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

, is a

joint research unit A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGra ...

(UMR 9025) of the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(CNRS) and the

Paris-Saclay University Paris-Saclay University (, ) is a combined technological research institute and public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical ''grandes écoles,'' as well as several technol ...

History

The Aimé-Cotton laboratory was created in 1927 as an annex to the Physical Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Sciences of the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, on the occasion of the construction of the Large

Electromagnet An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by an electric current. Electromagnets usually consist of wire (likely copper) wound into a electromagnetic coil, coil. A current through the wire creates a magnetic ...

of the Academy of Sciences at Meudon-Bellevue, of which

Aimé Cotton Aimé Auguste Cotton (9 October 1869 – 16 April 1951) was a French physicist known for his studies of the interaction of light with chiral molecules. In the absorption bands of these molecules, he discovered large values of optical rotato ...

, at the origin of the project in 1914, solemnly announced the completion on July 9, 1928. First director of the laboratory of the Grand electromagnet de Bellevue, Aimé Cotton's successors in 1941 were Gaston Dupouy then, in 1950, Pierre Jacquinot. Successively "electromagnet and low temperatures laboratory", "low temperatures laboratory", "low temperatures and intense magnetic fields laboratory" then "magnetism and magneto-optics laboratory", the laboratory took over in 1951, on the initiative of Pierre Jacquinot and not without his having encountered the objection that a CNRS laboratory had never been named after someone, the name of the Aimé-Cotton laboratory (LAC). Competed, in Bellevue itself, by the magnetism laboratory of Charles Guillaud, the LAC (whose contribution to magnetism was fiercely judged by

Louis Néel Louis Eugène Félix Néel (; 22 November 1904 – 17 November 2000) was a French physicist born in Lyon who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970 for his studies of the magnetic properties of solids. Biography Néel studied at the Lyc ...

by declaring “Industrially, they never managed to make a single thing. It was lead soles this laboratory...") then turned more particularly towards

atomic spectroscopy In physics, atomic spectroscopy is the study of the electromagnetic radiation absorbed and emitted by atoms. Since unique elements have unique emission spectra, atomic spectroscopy is applied for determination of elemental compositions. It can ...

and played a pioneering role in the development of Fourier transform spectrometry, to the development of which, from 1954, Pierre and

Janine Connes Janine Connes (, 19 May 1926 – 28 November 2024) was a French astronomer whose research led to the establishment of the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy method, which was of major significance and laid the foundations of what was to gro ...

devoted themselves. From the conference on “interferometric spectrometry” organized in Bellevue in 1957 by P. Jacquinot, the LAC played the role of a nursery for the dissemination of this new spectrometric technique. Under the direction of

Robert Chabbal Robert Chabbal (6 February 1927 – 14 September 2020) was a French physician and scientific researcher. He was Director General of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) from 1976 to 1979. Biography After his studies at the � ...

, the LAC moved in 1967 to the

campus of the

Paris-Sud University Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

, on the edge of the Moulon plateau. On January 1, 2015, the LAC, which until then was its own research unit (UPR no. 3321) of the CNRS associated with the Paris-Sud University, became a

Joint Research Unit A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGra ...

(UMR), under the triple supervision of the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, the Paris-Sud University and the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Cachan. This unit was dissolved on December 31, 2019, to make way for two “''formations de recherche en évolution''” (FRE): one taking the name Aimé-Cotton laboratory and the other LuMIn (Light, Matter and Interfaces). The Aimé-Cotton laboratory will once again become a Joint Research Unit (UMR no. 9025) from January 1, 2022.Bulletin Officiel du CNRS
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History

References

Further reading