Post-Doc Position on Theory of Structured Attosecond Pulses Applied to the study of thermal properties of materials

The University of Salamanca (Spain) invites applications for a 16-month postdoc position starting in May 2024. The position is part of the project ATTOSTRUCTURA, “Structured attosecond pulses for ultrafast nanoscience”, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 851201), supervised by Dr. Carlos Hernández-García.

The postdoctoral researcher will enrol the project “Structured attosecond pulses for ultrafast nanoscience” at the Laser Applications and Photonics Research group (ALF-USAL) at University of Salamanca (https://laser.usal.es/alf/en/home/). ALF-USAL is an interdisciplinary Optics research group with expertise in both theory (strong-field physics, nonlinear optics, ultrafast phenomena, attosecond science) and experiments (ultrashort pulse characterization, pulse shaping, photonic crystals, ultrashort micro-machining). Some of the recent results have been published in high impact factor scientific journals:

• “Generation of extreme-ultraviolet beams with time-varying orbital angular momentum”, L Rego, K M Dorney, N J Brooks, Q Nguyen, C-T Liao, J San Román, D E Couch, Allison Liu, E Pisanty, M Lewenstein, L Plaja, H C Kapteyn, M M Murnane, C Hernández-García, Science 364, eaaw9486 (2019). Highlighted in the media:

Physicists discover croissant-shaped twists of light. National Geographic (USA)

Twisted light gains angular momentum through ‘self-torque’. PhysicsWorld (UK)

Descubierta una nueva propiedad de la luz. El País (Spain)

Físicos españoles descubren una nueva propiedad de la luz. El Mundo (Spain)

• “Controlling the polarization and vortex charge of attosecond high-harmonic beams via simultaneous spin-orbit momentum conservation”, K M Dorney, L Rego, N Brooks, J San Román, C-T Liao, J L Ellis, D Zusin, C Gentry, Q Nguyen, J M Shaw, A Picón, L Plaja, H C Kapteyn, M M Murnane, C Hernández-García, Nature Photonics 13, 123–130 (2019).
• “Ultraintense femtosecond magnetic nanoprobes induced by azimuthally polarized laser beams”, M Blanco, F Cambronero, M T Flores-Arias, E Conejero Jarque, L Plaja, C Hernández-García, ACS Photonics 6, 38–42 (2019)
• “Extreme-Ultraviolet Vector-Vortex Beams from High Harmonic Generation“, Alba de las Heras, Alok P. Pandey, Julio San Román, Javier Serrano, Elsa Baynard, Guillaume Dovillaire, Moana Pittman, Charles Durfee, Luis Plaja, Sophie Kazamias, Olivier Guilbaud, Carlos Hernández-García, Optica 9, 71-79 (2022).
• “Necklace-structured high harmonic generation for low-divergence, soft X-ray harmonic combs with tunable line spacing”, Laura Rego, Nathan J. Brooks, Quynh L. D. Nguyen, Julio San Román, Iona Binnie, Luis Plaja, Henry C. Kapteyn, Margaret M. Murnane, Carlos Hernández-García, Science Advances 8, eabj7380 (2022).

Job Profile

The candidate will explore the development of theoretical simulations for the study of thermal properties of materials under their interaction with structured laser pulses. The candidate will count with the collaboration of the theory research team at ALF-USAL (Dr. Luis Plaja, Dr. Julio San Román, Dr. Enrique Conejero and Dr. Carlos Hernández-García).

Successful candidates will have the possibility to consolidate their own independent research lines and to promote collaborative research among the following research lines:

• Implementation, development, and analysis of codes for the simulation of thermal transport at the nanoscale.
• Implementation, development, and analysis of codes for the laser-matter interaction between structured laser pulses and two-dimensional materials.
• Exploration of light’s topology exchange at the nanoscale.