Physics research at the Marcelin-Berthelot site of the Collège de France continues a long tradition, illustrated in the past by the laboratories of Paul Langevin, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Louis Leprince-Ringuet, Marcel Froissart and Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. The Institut de Physique, which opened in 2014 after a complete renovation, currently brings together the research activity of the chair teams of Antoine Georges (Condensed Matter) and Jean Dalibard (Atoms and Radiation), and those of several hosted teams. To support this research, the Institut de Physique also has a clean room for sample preparation, a mechanical workshop equipped with precision CNC machines, and a secretariat.
The common theme of the Institut de Physique teams is the exploration of the quantum world, from photonics and the elementary processes of atom-light interaction to solid-state physics and superconductivity. The " Quantum physics " team, founded by Serge Haroche at the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel and led by Michel Brune and Jean-Michel Raimond, focuses on cavity quantum electrodynamics and quantum simulation. The other four teams, headed by Benoît Fauqué, Caglar Girit, Alexei Ourjoumtsev and Marco Schiro, are part of an incubator developed jointly with the CNRS. Its aim is to provide young researchers with an ideal material and intellectual environment in which to develop innovative research projects, up to the point of maturity when they can settle permanently in other establishments.
In addition, the institute includes a branch of the Sciences of the Universe, including internal and external geophysics, and astrophysics, from planetary formation to cosmology.
