In the next edition of #CondensedMatterPioneers we would like to highlight the career of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932-2007), a French physicist renowned for his extensive contributions to condensed matter physics, particularly in the study of soft matter.🧵 - ThreadSky

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ifimacuam.bsky.social • 96 days ago

In the next edition of #CondensedMatterPioneers we would like to highlight the career of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932-2007), a French physicist renowned for his extensive contributions to condensed matter physics, particularly in the study of soft matter.🧵

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ifimacuam.bsky.social•96 days ago

He majored from the École Normale in 1955. After graduating, he moved to the group of André Herpin where he did his PhD thesis: “Contributions to the study of the magnetic scattering of neutrons”.

ifimacuam.bsky.social•96 days ago

De Gennes built on the work of Jacrot and Cribier at Saclay, who had previously observed antiferromagnetic order using a technique called Bragg diffraction.

ifimacuam.bsky.social•96 days ago

This confirmed a theoretical model developed by Louis Néel and allowed the first studies of critical-point behaviour. Pierre-Gilles developed a comprehensive theory that is still considered a classic today.

ifimacuam.bsky.social•96 days ago

In 1957, he started working with Charles Kittel's group at the University of California, Berkeley, as a postdoctoral researcher. There, he studied magnetism, including how rare earth garnets can exchange magnetism and how they can be used to make sound waves.

ifimacuam.bsky.social•96 days ago

After serving in the military for two years, he joined Jacques Friedel's group at Orsay, where he started working on superconductivity. This was a field that had just been revolutionised by a theory called the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory.

ifimacuam.bsky.social•96 days ago

During this time, he made new discoveries in this area of research. He focused especially on inhomogeneities, such as defects, vortices, and surfaces. He used these as important places to test his theoretical models.

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