HiPOVor ESR- Generation and properties of ultrashort vortices space-time coupling

Organisation/Company Université libre de Bruxelles Department Ecole Polytechnique Research Field Physics » Optics Engineering » Electrical engineering Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Final date to receive applications 15 Mar 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Brussels) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38 Offer Starting Date 1 Oct 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Horizon Europe - MSCA Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number  Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

This is an open position for a PhD student studying aspects of high-power (ultrashort) optical vortices at the Université libre de Bruxelles under Prof. Spencer W. Jolly. This position is funded by the Marie-Curie Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN) HiPOVor with a targeted starting date of either September 1st or October 1st, 2026.

Short description about the project and the partners

HiPOVor is an international collaborative effort aiming to overcome the challenges involved in creating light beams that carry optical angular momentum with both very high peak power and very high average power. A group of young researchers will explore the entire development chain of these beams, including the devices used to generate them, the study of their physical properties, their amplification, their behavior during propagation, and their practical uses.

The project will train fifteen doctoral candidates to become the first specialists able to produce powerful light beams that carry optical angular momentum and to advance their use in both academic and industrial settings. The work is supported by an interdisciplinary consortium of eight leading universities and nine partners from industry. The academic partners are Tampere University in Finland, the University of Stuttgart in Germany, the University of Warsaw in Poland, the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, the University of Bucharest in Romania, Universite libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, Universite Paris Saclay in France and the CNRS centre known as Femto ST in France.

The project partners from industry together with the academic institutions will support research that is expected to strengthen European scientific excellence, enable new optical technologies, improve methods for producing structures at the scale of nanometres and contribute to more sustainable and energy efficient solutions.

Context and state-of-the-art of Scientific Research project

Structured coherent light beams, like the optical vortex or the Airy beam (structured on their spatial profiles), have matured to be used for manipulating microscopic particles or even biological samples, for multiplexing in optical communication, and for optical metrology, for example. In parallel optical pulses have also matured, being applied to a number of basic science topics, and enabling advanced micromachining.

The optical vortex is interesting because it has a specific profile, can be described by standard propagation equations, and has orbital angular momentum (OAM) that can be imparted upon other physical systems. However, this description and the properties become much more complex when an optical vortex is a very short pulse.

Space-time structured light is a new and developing field of study, whereby not only is coherent light structured in both space and time, but in a way such that the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom are inextricably linked. One quintessential example of a light beam that is structured in space and time is the so-called spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV), which carries orbital angular momentum (OAM) pointing orthogonally to the propagation direction.

Such a complex light field is achieved by structuring the temporal profile of an ultrafast pulse differently for each point in space, typically by using holographic techniques, in such a way that the beam has an intensity null at the center and a phase profile that winds around the center in a plane that contains the propagation direction. Although conceptually similar to spatial vortices, STOVs are more…