Current Interests

Dr Alexandre Cuenat is leading work on thermoelectric energy conversion and transport in nanostructured materials. His research focuses on nanoscale measurement of electric and thermal transport properties using scanning probe (SKPM, SThM, current-AFM, etc.) and robust methods to measure thermoelectric energy system in realistic industrial conditions.

Biography

Alexandre holds an Engineering Degree in Physics, an MSc in Theoretical Physics and a PhD in Solid State Physics all from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).

His PhD research elucidated the kinetics of intermetallic amorphous clusters formation during ion implantation using Channeling-Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Molecular Dynamics simulation. He then joined the Applied Physics group at Harvard University as a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Professor Aziz on the kinetics of surfaces in non-equilibrium. He built a UHV system to study in-situ and in real time the self-organization of nanoscale structures on semiconductor surfaces using UV-light scattering spectroscopy.

He came back to Europe as a member of the SiGeNet network (SiGeC nanostructures: a new path to silicon based optoelectronics) and worked on molecular beam epitaxy of SiGe quantum dots and their alignment using focused ion beam pre-patterned substrates.

Since 2004, he has been a permanent member of staff at NPL, where he has worked on nanomaterials characterization using scanning probe methods, nanoparticles and nanotubes characterization and microfluidic analysis.

Selected Publications

• Quantitative nanoscale surface voltage measurement on organic semiconductor blends
  A. Cuenat, A. Muniz-Piniella, M. Munoz-Rojo, W. C. Tsoi, C. Murphy
  Nanotechnology, in press (2011)
• Mapping the placement of oligonucleotide molecules using scanning probe microscopy
  R. D. Boyd, L. Winkless, A. Cuenat, O. Kazakova
  Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 83 (1), pages 10-15 (2011)
• New analysis procedure for fast and reliable size measurement of nanoparticles from atomic force microscopy images
  R. D. Boyd, A. Cuenat
  Journal of Nanoparticle Research 13 (1), pages 105-113 (2011)
• Optimization of 2DEG InAs/GaSb Hall Sensors for Single Particle Detection
  O. Kazakova, J. C. Gallop, D. C. Cox, E. Brown, A. Cuenat, K. Suzuki
  IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 44 (11), pages 4480-4483 (2008)
• Dynamic properties of AFM cantilevers and the calibration of their spring constants
  D. A. Mendels, M. Lowe, A. Cuenat, M. G. Cain, E. Vallejo, D. Ellis, F. Mendels
  Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 16, page 1720 (2006)
• Lateral Templating for Guided Self-Organization of Sputter Morphologies
  A. Cuenat, H. B. George, K. C. Chang, J. M. Blakely, M. J. Aziz
  Advanced Materials 17 (23), pages 2845-2849 (2005)
• Ge dot organization on Si substrates patterned by focused ion beam
  A. Karmous, A. Cuenat, A. Ronda, I. Berbezier, S. Atha, R. Hull
  Applied physics letters 85, pages 6401 (2004)

Full publication record

Contact details

E-mail: alexandre.cuenat@npl.co.uk
Tel: 020 8943 8627