In 2014, while carrying out experiments as part of her thesis in molecular chemistry devoted to the design of new dyes, researcher Laurélie POULARD, made a discovery:
she identified a pigmentary material with unexpected optical behavior, since it displays a specular reflection of light (metal-like appearance & mirror effect).
This organized solid not being conductive of electricity (no plasmonic effect): was it then a new kind of organized materials referred to as “photonic crystals”? Neither…
This material does not present a periodic structuring of its dielectric medium, but a single air-dielectric interface.
It was in fact a meta-material, with no equivalent in nature, whose optical functioning is based on an excitonic principle.
The path was steep towards the explanation. This path was the fruit of a collaborative research in the framework of the TOR project (“Tunable Organic Reflectors”).
Together, the four researchers L. POULARD (Dr), G. DUPEYRE (Dr), V. MARVAUD (Director of Research at CNRS) and P. LAINÉ (Director of Research at CNRS) are the co-inventors of the technology and will become the co-founders of the startup AURESSENS.
Here are the main periods that mark the development of the TOR technology:
Our multidisciplinary approach combines organic chemistry, materials chemistry and formulation, with physics and optics. It allows us to cultivate an acute capacity for innovation, which is put to the continuous benefit of our formulas and processes.
We offer an alternative to metal in applications where its optical properties are paramount. We strive to meet the highest standards of our customers by offering reliable, easy-to-use and competitive products and solutions.
The reduction of the societal and environmental impact of our activities, as well as those of our customers, is at the heart of our approach. We aim to optimize the life cycles of our products as much as possible in order to contribute, at our level, to a more global transition in production methods.
We are resolutely supporting our customers to accompany them in the transformation of their processes. We put our ability to listen and adapt at their service in order to respond in a customized way to their highest requirements.
