Jonathan Houard

Title: Jonathan Houard and Terahertz-Enabled Tomographic Atom Probe Technology.

Introduction

Jonathan Houard is an inventor based in Rouen, France. His work includes a patent for a tomographic atom probe that uses terahertz pulses to analyze materials at the nanoscale.

Latest Patents

Houard is associated with 1 patent: “Tomographic Atom Probe with Terahertz Pulse Generator.” The invention describes an analysis chamber for examining a material sample formed as a nanotip. The nanotip is mounted on an anti-vibration support, cooled to a temperature between 0 kelvin and ambient temperature, and held at an adjustable voltage between 1 and 15 kilovolts. A position-sensitive, time-of-flight ion detector records the evaporated atoms.

The device generates high-peak-intensity, single-cycle ultrashort terahertz pulses and focuses them on the nanotip. This focusing causes atoms to evaporate through the field effect without thermal effects. A femtosecond pulsed laser produces the ultrashort optical pulses used to generate the terahertz pulses.

Career Highlights

Houard is associated with the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rouen and Université de Rouen Normandie. His patent reflects research into combining ultrafast laser technology with atom-probe analysis.

Collaborations

His listed coworkers include Lorenzo Rigutti and Angela Vella.

Conclusion

Jonathan Houard’s patented atom-probe technology uses focused terahertz pulses to enable field-driven atom evaporation, contributing an approach to nanoscale material analysis.