The Service of Physics of Materials and Microstructures (SP2M) consists of 7 laboratories gathering a hundred researchers, doctorants and technicians of the CEA, CNRS and University J Fourier. The research led to the SP2M relates to the comprehension and the control of the various physical phenomena primarily related to effects of size, which appear in magnetic objects or semiconductors of nanometric size.

The fields of application aimed by this research touch with nanoelectronic, the spintronique one (or electronics of spin) and the photonic one. In the long run, they will lead to the design and the realization of new devices and sensors to store, process and manage data.

The scientific activity of the laboratory is based on very strong interactions between powerful means of manufacture of nanoobjets (thin layers by epitaxy by molecular jets, cathode sputtering, aggregates), of the methods of structural studies on the scale of the atom (electronic microscopy high resolution, microscopies of proximity, diffraction and diffusion of x-rays and the ions), the static and dynamic analysis (magnetic measurements, optical spectroscopy) of the physical properties of nanostructures and the digital simulation (electronic structure, molecular dynamics).

Supported by several national and European programs carried out in collaboration with public and industrial laboratories in the fields of Nanosciences and Information Technologies, the activities of research of the SP2M are naturally registered in the heart of the poles "Microphone-NanoTEChnologies" and "Nano-Bio" of the area grenobloise.