• 2016 – Professor at ENPC
• 2005 – Researcher Navier, CNRS, Univ. Gustave Eiffel, Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IPParis)
• 2004 – Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches – Université Jussieu Paris VI : “Elementary mechanisms of deformation in amorphous solids"
• 2000-2005    Post-doctoral fellow at the Physics department of UC Santa Barbara, Californie, USA
• 1998-2000    Post-doctoral student at service de physique de l’état condensé (SPEC) – CEA, Saclay
• 1994-1998    PhD in Theoretical Physics – École polytechnique: “Coupled chaotic systems: collective behavior and universality"
• 1993-1994    Master course in Theoretical Physics – École normale supérieure, Paris
• 1991-1994    École nationale des ponts et chaussées
• 1988-1991    École polytechnique

My research focuses on the physics of non-crystalline materials, combining molecular dynamics, statistical physics to understand the microscopic origin of elasticity, plasticity, rheology and mechanical loss in amorphous solids, glasses, granular materials and dense suspensions.

•  Materials:
  • Amorphous solids
  • Supercooled liquids
  • Oxides and oxide layers
  • Colloidal suspensions
  • Granular media
• Properties and phenomena:
  • Elasticity and vibrational response
  • Plasticity and flow (including steady flow rheology, shear localization, Bauschinger effect, etc.)
  • Structural relaxation
  • Sound damping and mechanical noise
  • Physical vapor deposition

• Past courses at ENPC:
  • Département génie mécanique et matériaux (GMM), 2nd year: Micromechanics of materials
  • 1st year, Statistical physics
  • Master SMCD, molecular simulation
• Current courses at ENPC IPParis:
  • Quantum mechanics
  • Energy (basic elements of nuclear physics)

• C. Maloney and A. Lemaître, “Subextensive Scaling in the Athermal, Quasistatic Limit of Amorphous Matter in Plastic Shear Flow”, Physical Review Letters 93, 016001 (2004).
• C. Maloney and A. Lemaître, “Universal Breakdown of Elasticity at the Onset of Material Failure”, Physical Review Letters 93, 195501 (2004).
• A. Lemaître and C. Maloney, “Sum Rules for the Quasi-Static and Visco-Elastic Response of Disordered Solids at Zero Temperature”, Journal of Statistical Physics 123, 415–453 (2006).
• A. Lemaître and C. Caroli, “Rate-Dependent Avalanche Size in Athermally Sheared Amorphous Solids”, Physical Review Letters 103, 065501 (2009).
• A. Lemaître, “Structural Relaxation is a Scale-Free Process”, Physical Review Letters 113, 245702 (2014).
• S. Gelin, H. Tanaka and A. Lemaître, “Anomalous phonon scattering and elastic correlations in amorphous solids”, Nature Materials 15, 1177–1181 (2016).
• A. Lemaître, “Stress correlations in glasses”, Journal of Chemical Physics 149, 104107 (2018).
• F. Bonacci, X. Chateau, E. M. Furst, J. Fusier, J. Goyon and A. Lemaître, “Contact and macroscopic ageing in colloidal suspensions”, Nature Materials 19, 775–780 (2020).
• S. Patinet, A. Barbot, M. Lerbinger, D. Vandembroucq and A. Lemaître, “Origin of the Bauschinger Effect in Amorphous Solids”, Physical Review Letters 124, 205503 (2020).
• A. Lemaître, “Stress hyperuniformity and transient oscillatory-exponential correlation decay as signatures of strength vs fragility in glasses”, Journal of Chemical Physics 155, 194501 (2021).

Publication list by theme

All publications, excluding Virgo collaboration articles, are organized below by research theme.

Amorphous plasticity, avalanches, and shear banding

This line of work addresses the microscopic origin of plasticity in amorphous solids, in athermal quasistatic conditions (AQS), covering avalanche dynamics, shear-localization and the Bauschinger effect, to finite-rate and thermal effects on steady flow rheology.

• G. Cordella, F. Puosi, A. Tripodo, D. Leporini and A. Lemaître, “Plastic ridge formation in a compressed thin amorphous film”, Physical Review Materials 6, L122601 (2022).
• S. Patinet, A. Barbot, M. Lerbinger, D. Vandembroucq and A. Lemaître, “Origin of the Bauschinger Effect in Amorphous Solids”, Physical Review Letters 124, 205503 (2020).
• A. Barbot, M. Lerbinger, A. Lemaître, D. Vandembroucq and S. Patinet, “Rejuvenation and shear banding in model amorphous solids”, Physical Review E 101, 033001 (2020).
• J. Chattoraj, C. Caroli and A. Lemaître, “Robustness of avalanche dynamics in sheared amorphous solids as probed by transverse diffusion”, Physical Review E 84, 011501 (2011).
• J. Chattoraj, C. Caroli and A. Lemaître, “Universal Additive Effect of Temperature on the Rheology of Amorphous Solids”, Physical Review Letters 105, 266001 (2010).
• S. Karmakar, A. Lemaître, E. Lerner and I. Procaccia, “Predicting Plastic Flow Events in Athermal Shear-Strained Amorphous Solids”, Physical Review Letters 104, 215502 (2010).
• A. Lemaître and C. Caroli, “Rate-Dependent Avalanche Size in Athermally Sheared Amorphous Solids”, Physical Review Letters 103, 065501 (2009).
• A. Lemaître and C. Caroli, “Plastic response of a two-dimensional amorphous solid to quasistatic shear: Transverse particle diffusion and phenomenology of dissipative events”, Physical Review E 76, 036104 (2007).
• N. P. Bailey, J. Schiøtz, A. Lemaître and K. W. Jacobsen, “Avalanche size scaling in sheared three-dimensional amorphous solid”, Physical Review Letters 98, 095501 (2007).
• C. E. Maloney and A. Lemaître, “Amorphous systems in athermal, quasistatic shear”, Physical Review E 74, 016118 (2006).
• C. Maloney and A. Lemaître, “Universal Breakdown of Elasticity at the Onset of Material Failure”, Physical Review Letters 93, 195501 (2004).
• C. Maloney and A. Lemaître, “Subextensive Scaling in the Athermal, Quasistatic Limit of Amorphous Matter in Plastic Shear Flow”, Physical Review Letters 93, 016001 (2004).

Supercooled liquids and Eshelby stresses

This line of work addresses structural relaxation, Eshelby signature of relaxation events leading to facilitation, and nonlinear rheology in glass-forming liquids.

• A. Lemaître, “Structural relaxation is a scale-free process”, Physical Review Letters 113, 245702 (2014).
• J. Chattoraj and A. Lemaître, “Elastic Signature of Flow Events in Supercooled Liquids Under Shear”, Physical Review Letters 111, 066001 (2013).
• C. Caroli and A. Lemaître, “Ultrafast spherulitic crystal growth as a stress-induced phenomenon specific of fragile glass-formers”, Journal of Chemical Physics 137, 114506 (2012).
• J. S. Langer and A. Lemaître, “Dynamic model of super-Arrhenius relaxation rates in glassy materials”, Physical Review Letters 94, 175701 (2005).

Elasticity, stress correlations, sound damping, and vibrations in glasses

This line of work addresses elastic properties of amorphous solids, including their elastic response and vibrational properties (sound damping), and the origin of intrinsic long-range stress correlations.

• N. S. Shcheblanov and A. Lemaître, “The vibrational spectrum of vitreous silica: rigorous decomposition via recursive orthogonal splitting analysis”, arXiv:2604.17933 (2026).
• A. Lemaître, “Stress hyperuniformity and transient oscillatory-exponential correlation decay as signatures of strength vs fragility in glasses”, Journal of Chemical Physics 155, 194501 (2021).
• C. Caroli and A. Lemaître, “Key role of retardation and non-locality in sound propagation in amorphous solids as evidenced by a projection formalism”, Journal of Chemical Physics 153, 144502 (2020).
• C. Caroli and A. Lemaître, “Fluctuating elasticity fails to capture anomalous sound scattering in amorphous solids”, Physical Review Letters 123, 055501 (2019).
• A. Lemaître, “Stress correlations in glasses”, Journal of Chemical Physics 149, 104107 (2018).
• A. Lemaître, “Inherent stress correlations in a quiescent two-dimensional liquid: Static analysis including finite-size effects”, Physical Review E 96, 052101 (2017).
• S. Gelin, H. Tanaka and A. Lemaître, “Anomalous phonon scattering and elastic correlations in amorphous solids”, Nature Materials 15, 1177–1181 (2016).
• A. Lemaître, “Tensorial analysis of Eshelby stresses in 3D supercooled liquids”, Journal of Chemical Physics 143, 164515 (2015).
• A. Lemaître and C. Maloney, “Sum Rules for the Quasi-Static and Visco-Elastic Response of Disordered Solids at Zero Temperature”, Journal of Statistical Physics 123, 415–453 (2006).

Optical coatings and mechanical loss

This line of work focuses on the structure, internal stress, mechanical loss of amorphous thin films and optical coatings, with particular emphasis on coating materials relevant to gravitational-wave detectors.

• V. Milotti, G. Favaro, M. Granata, D. Forest, C. Michel, J. Teillon, N. Busdon, M. Bazzan, H. Skliarova, G. Ciani, C. Scian, L. Conti, S. Samandari, V. Venturino, M. Magnozzi, M. Canepa, N. Demos, S. Gras, M. Evans, V. Martinez, G. Cagnoli, N. S. Shcheblanov and A. Lemaître, “Thermal noise reduction in ion-beam sputtered HfO₂:Ta₂O₅ thin films via high-temperature treatment”, Optical Materials 163, 116901 (2025).
• N. S. Shcheblanov, C. Leonard, Q.-D. To, M. E. Povarnitsyn and A. Lemaître, “Molecular dynamics study of the formation of porous films by room-temperature physical vapor deposition of silica”, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 128, 17606–17618 (2024).
• G. Favaro, V. Milotti, D. A. Diaz Riega, N. Busdon, M. Bazzan, M. Granata, D. Hofman, C. Michel, L. Pinard, L. Conti, S. Capaccioli, N. S. Shcheblanov, A. Lemaître, V. Martinez, G. Cagnoli, F. Piergiovanni, F. Fabrizi, M. G. Pelizzo and A. J. Corso, “Reduction of mechanical losses in ion-beam sputtered tantalum oxide thin films via partial crystallization”, Classical and Quantum Gravity 41 (2024).
• C. Malhaire, M. Granata, D. Hofman, A. Amato, V. Martinez, G. Cagnoli, A. Lemaître and N. Shcheblanov, “Determination of stress in thin films using micro-machined buckled membranes”, Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 41, 043401 (2023).
• A. Amato, M. Magnozzi, N. Shcheblanov, A. Lemaître, G. Cagnoli, M. Granata, C. Michel, G. Gemme, L. Pinard and M. Canepa, “Enhancing titania–tantala amorphous materials as high-index layers in Bragg reflectors of gravitational-wave detectors”, ACS Applied Optical Materials 1, 395–402 (2023).
• A. Amato, D. Lumaca, E. Cesarini, M. Granata, A. Lemaître, M. Lorenzini, C. Malhaire, C. Michel, F. Piergiovanni, L. Pinard, N. Shcheblanov and G. Cagnoli, “Systematic error in the internal friction measurement of coatings for gravitational wave detectors”, Physical Review D 106, 082007 (2022).
• A. Paolone, E. Placidi, E. Stellino, M. G. Betti, E. Majorana, C. Mariani, A. Nucara, O. Palumbo, P. Postorino, I. Rago, F. Trequattrini, M. Granata, J. Teillon, D. Hofman, C. Michel, A. Lemaître, N. Shcheblanov, G. Cagnoli and F. Ricci, “Effects of the annealing of amorphous Ta₂O₅ coatings produced by ion beam sputtering concerning the effusion of argon and the chemical composition”, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 557 (2021).
• S. Gelin, D. Poinot, S. Chatel, P. J. Calba and A. Lemaître, “Microstructural origin of compressive in situ stresses in electron-gun-evaporated silica thin films”, Physical Review Materials 3, 055608 (2019).

Cement and adhesive colloidal suspensions

This line of work addresses dense pastes and attractive colloidal suspensions, with emphasis on the microscopic origin of steady flow, thixotropy, ageing, and the role of adhesive interparticle contacts.

• F. Bonacci, X. Chateau, E. M. Furst, J. Goyon and A. Lemaître, “Yield Stress Aging in Attractive Colloidal Suspensions”, Physical Review Letters 128, 018003 (2022).
• F. Bonacci, X. Chateau, E. M. Furst, J. Fusier, J. Goyon and A. Lemaître, “Contact and macroscopic ageing in colloidal suspensions”, Nature Materials 19, 775–780 (2020).
• N. Roussel, A. Lemaître, R. J. Flatt and P. Coussot, “Steady state flow of cement suspensions: A micromechanical state of the art”, Cement and Concrete Research 40, 77–84 (2010).

Granular media and dense non-Brownian suspensions

This line of work addresses the rheology of dense athermal particulate materials, from dry granular flows and Bagnold scaling to shear thickening, shear jamming and dense non-Brownian suspension rheology.

• A. Lemaître, C. Mondal, M. Moshe, I. Procaccia, S. Roy and K. Screiber-Re’em, “Anomalous elasticity and plastic screening in amorphous solids”, Physical Review E 104, 024904 (2021).
• A. Lemaître, C. Mondal, I. Procaccia, S. Roy, Y. Q. Wang and J. Zhang, “Frictional granular matter: Protocol dependence of mechanical properties”, Physical Review Letters 126, 075501 (2021).
• A. Lemaître, C. Mondal, I. Procaccia and S. Roy, “Stress correlations in frictional granular media”, Physical Review B 103, 054110 (2021).
• A. Fall, F. Bertrand, D. Hautemayou, C. Mezière, P. Moucheront, A. Lemaître and G. Ovarlez, “Macroscopic discontinuous shear thickening versus local shear jamming in cornstarch”, Physical Review Letters 114, 098301 (2015).
• A. Fall, A. Lemaître, F. Bertrand, D. Bonn and G. Ovarlez, “Shear thickening and migration in granular suspensions”, Physical Review Letters 105, 268303 (2010).
• A. Lemaître, J.-N. Roux and F. Chevoir, “What do dry granular flows tell us about dense non-Brownian suspension rheology?”, Rheologica Acta 48, 925–942 (2009).
• G. Lois, A. Lemaître and J. M. Carlson, “Momentum transport in granular flows”, Computers & Mathematics with Applications 55, 175–183 (2008).
• G. Lois, A. Lemaître and J. M. Carlson, “Spatial force correlations in granular shear flow. I. Numerical evidence”, Physical Review E 76, 021302 (2007).
• G. Lois, A. Lemaître and J. M. Carlson, “Spatial force correlations in granular shear flow. II. Theoretical implications”, Physical Review E 76, 021303 (2007).
• G. Lois, A. Lemaître and J. M. Carlson, “Emergence of multi-contact interactions in contact dynamics simulations of granular shear flows”, Europhysics Letters 76, 318–324 (2006).
• G. Lois, A. Lemaître and J. M. Carlson, “Numerical tests of constitutive laws for dense granular flows”, Physical Review E 72, 051303 (2005).

Shear-transformation zone (STZ) theory and effective-temperature

This line of work develops constitutive descriptions of dense and glassy materials based on STZ theory by applying it to the case of granular media and introducing the notion of effective temperature.

• A. Lemaître, “Out-of-equilibrium relaxation of a time-dependent effective temperature”, in Jamming, Yielding, and Irreversible Deformation in Condensed Matter 688, 129–136 (2006).
• A. Lemaître and J. Carlson, “Boundary lubrication with a glassy interface”, Physical Review E 69, 061611 (2004).
• A. Lemaître, “Rearrangements and Dilatancy for Sheared Dense Materials”, Physical Review Letters 89, 195503 (2002).
• A. Lemaître, “Origin of a Repose Angle: Kinetics of Rearrangement for Granular Materials”, Physical Review Letters 89, 064303 (2002).

Polymer networks

• C. Caroli, O. Ronsin and A. Lemaître, “Glass-like stress relaxation of a permanent gelatin network as a signature of pretransitional helix-coil fluctuations”, Journal of Chemical Physics 148, 054901 (2018).
• C. Caroli and A. Lemaître, “Effects of disorder and chain stiffening on the elasticity of flexible polymer networks”, Physical Review E 95, 032501 (2017).

Thin-film rheology

• B. Figliuzzi, D. Jeulin, A. Lemaître, G. Fricout, J.-J. Piezanowski and P. Manneville, “Rheology of thin films from flow observations”, Experiments in Fluids 53, 1289–1299 (2012).
• B. Figliuzzi, D. Jeulin, A. Lemaître, G. Fricout, P. Manneville and J.-J. Piezanowski, “Numerical simulation of thin paint film flow”, Journal of Mathematics in Industry 2, 2:1 (2012).

Statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics, and early work

• V. Hakim, A. Lemaître and K. Mallick, “Giant vortices in the Ginzburg-Landau description of superconductivity”, Physical Review B 64, 134512 (2001).
• H. Yoshino, A. Lemaître and J. P. Bouchaud, “Multiple domain growth and memory in the droplet model for spin-glasses”, European Physical Journal B 20, 367–395 (2001).
• I. Dornic, A. Lemaître, A. Baldassarri and H. Chaté, “Analytical results for generalized persistence properties of smooth processes”, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 33, 7499–7513 (2000).
• J. Kockelkoren, A. Lemaître and H. Chaté, “Phase-ordering and persistence: relative effects of space-discretization, chaos, and anisotropy”, Physica A 288, 326–337 (2000).
• A. Lemaître and H. Chaté, “Renormalization group for strongly coupled maps”, Journal of Statistical Physics 96, 915–962 (1999).
• A. Lemaître and H. Chaté, “Macroscopic model for collective behavior of chaotic coupled map lattices”, Europhysics Letters 46, 565–570 (1999).
• A. Lemaître and H. Chaté, “Phase ordering and onset of collective behavior in chaotic coupled map lattices”, Physical Review Letters 82, 1140–1143 (1999).
• A. Lemaître and H. Chaté, “Nonperturbative renormalization group for chaotic coupled map lattices”, Physical Review Letters 80, 5528–5531 (1998).
• A. Lemaître, H. Chaté and P. Manneville, “Conditional mean field for chaotic coupled map lattices”, Europhysics Letters 39, 377–382 (1997).
• A. Lemaître, H. Chaté and P. Manneville, “Cluster expansion for collective behavior in discrete-space dynamical systems”, Physical Review Letters 77, 486–489 (1996).
• H. Chaté, A. Lemaître, P. Marcq and P. Manneville, “Non-trivial collective behavior in extensively-chaotic dynamical systems: An update”, Physica A 224, 447–457 (1996).

Reviews and book chapters

• T. Divoux, E. Agoritsas, S. Aime, C. Barentin, J.-L. Barrat, R. Benzi, L. Berthier, D. Bi, G. Biroli, D. Bonn, P. Bourrianne, M. Bouzid, E. Del Gado, H. Delanoë-Ayari, K. Farain, S. Fielding, M. Fuchs, J. van der Gucht, S. Henkes, M. Jalaal, Y. M. Joshi, A. Lemaître, R. L. Leheny, S. Manneville, K. Martens, W. C. K. Poon, M. Popović, I. Procaccia, L. Ramos, J. A. Richards, S. Rogers, S. Rossi, M. Sbragaglia, G. Tarjus, F. Toschi, V. Trappe, J. Vermant, M. Wyart, F. Zamponi and D. Zare, “Ductile-to-brittle transition and yielding in soft amorphous materials: perspectives and open questions”, Soft Matter 20, 6868–6888 (2024).
• J.-L. Barrat and A. Lemaître, “Heterogeneities in amorphous systems under shear”, in L. Berthier, G. Biroli, J.-P. Bouchaud and W. van Saarloos, eds., Dynamical Heterogeneities in Glasses, Colloids, and Granular Media, International Series of Monographs on Physics (2011).