Post doctoral scholarship (2 years) in attosecond physics

The Department of Physics at Umeå University is offering a postdoctoral scholarship in attosecond physics. The scholarship is full-time for two years and the start date is 1 April 2025 or by agreement.

Project Description

The Relativistic Attosecond Physics Laboratory (REAL, www.realumu.org) is working on the generation and application of intense isolated attosecond pulses via gas high-order harmonic generation (HHG). The present project utilizes the Light Wave Synthesizer optical parametric synthesizer system, which is a laser with 4.5 fs pulse duration 100 TW peak power and carrier-envelope phase stabilization. Furthermore, a fully developed 24m-long gas harmonic beam line for intense attosecond pulse generation is available with electron and ion detectors to trace the nonlinear processes. 

The aim of the research is to investigate nonlinear light-matter interaction utilizing attosecond XUV pulses. To this end the candidate will be involved in the investigation of time-resolved inner-shell electron dynamics in various materials with intense attosecond pulses. Furthermore, involvement in other related projects like relativistic HHG is possible.

The scholarship is for two years and is financed by the Kempe Foundation. The scholarship amounts to 360,000 SEK per year and is tax-free.

Qualifications

To qualify as a postdoctoral scholarship holder, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirements must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the decision about scholarship recipient.

Priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior to the decision date for the scholarship recipient. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree prior to that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organizations, military service, or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area.

Doctoral degree should be in Physics or Engineering 

Previous experience and competence in at least one of below listed areas is required:

• Operation and application of ultrahigh power laser or OPCPA system
• Operation and application of few optical-cycle laser system
• Experimental attosecond physics and HHG
• Laser-plasma experiments

The applicant is required to be fluent in both oral and written English. The applicant should be highly motivated, responsible, goal-oriented, and have good ability to take on mainly experimental assignments both independently and in a research group. Experience with simulations and theory in the former fields, and supervision of Bachelor and Master students will be seen as a merit. It is expected that the candidate has documented skills in preparing data for publication and writing manuscripts. 

Application

A full application should include:

• Cover letter stating your motivations for applying and summarizing your qualifications for the position, your previous research experience as well as your experience in the area mentioned above (max. one page),
• Curriculum vitae (CV) with publication list,
• Verified copy of doctoral degree certificate or documentation that clarifies when the degree of doctor is expected to be obtained,
• Verified copies of other diplomas, list of completed academic courses and grades,
• Copy of doctoral thesis and up to three relevant publications,
• Other documents that the applicant wishes to enclose,
• Contact information of two persons willing to act as references.

The application should be written in English (preferably) or Swedish and attached documents should be in Word or PDF format. The application should be registered via Umeå University’s e-recruitment system Varbi and submitted by the deadline 14 February 2025.

Further information

For more information, please contact Prof. Laszlo Veisz, laszlo.veisz@umu.se.

We look forward to receiving your application!