PhD position Quantum Simulation RbSr Ground-state Molecules

Overview

Are you eager to push quantum simulation to new regimes in a lively, international research group? Do you want to explore physics that nobody else has seen? Maybe you want to join our team as a PhD on our exciting journey towards the first continuous super radiant clock. We are the ultracold strontium group at the University of Amsterdam and you can read more about the project here.

Your goals will be to explore the opportunities that we have identified in the RbSr mixture. We will employ the recently demonstrated stabilization of the 87

Rb-87

Sr (Bose-Fermi) resonantly interacting mixture under confinement in an optical lattice. We will study the effects of further reduction in dimensionality by additional optical trapping in the form of optical lattices and/or optical tweezers. We have developed a high-resolution multi-wavelength objective that will be used to achieve better sensitivity for both species. We aim to create weakly bound RbSr molecules through the use of confinement-induced resonance.

From there, we will be able to create ground-state molecules by optical adiabatic state-transfer techniques. Another avenue we will explore is the physics of strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixtures in our system.

This project is embedded in the ultracold atom part of the QDNL programme, and will allow you to learn about many interesting projects related to your PhD, in particular those of the strontium BEC group and of the hybrid atom-ion group. Your PhD project will profit from synergy with all these activities.

We are looking for someone who is excited about pushing novel types of ultracold atom experiments to new reals of AMO physics. You also should have

• a recent master in experimental ultracold atom or trapped ion physics.
• great team working skills.
• initiative and good time management skills.
• good communication skills in oral and written English.
• some experience with data analysis;
• strong letter of recommendation from master project supervisor;
• Beneficial skill: programming, including some languages of the following list: C, C++, Python, Matlab, Mathematica. Programming skills will be used to build experiment control systems, data analysis systems, and to perform numerical simulations of experiments.

We offer a temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week ranges between € 3,059 to € 3,881 (Scale P).

This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD candidate is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the 30% ruling, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.

The preferred starting date is to be discussed and lies preferably between April to September 2026. This employment should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain. The Institute of Physics (IoP) of the Faculty of Science combines the Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute (WZI), the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITFA) and the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEF) and is one of the large research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam.

The Van der Waals - Zeeman Institute for Experimental Physics (IoP-WZI) is part of the IoP and home to three research clusters:
Quantum Gases & Quantum Information (QG&QI), Quantum Materials (QMat), and Soft Matter (SM). You will join the Strontium Quantum Gases Group of the QG&QI cluster. We are using ultracold atoms and trapped ions as a means to…