Open projects for doctoral students within QMat
We are seeking motivated students for the following projects (in conjunction with the Doctoral College of Physics and Chemistry-Physics ED182 and the LabEx NIE – Nanostructures in interaction with their environment). Interested candidates are invited to contact the thesis director whose details appear next to the project title. This list will be periodically updated with new projects as they become available. If you are interested in one of the topics please contact the associated supervisor directly.
Opportunities for a PhD in “Ultrafast Spectroscopy of Condensed Phase Systems” at the University of Strasbourg
Three PhD projects are planned to start in September 2021 at the Strasbourg Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials (IPCMS), all related to experimental investigation of femtosecond dynamics in condensed phase systems:
1. Ultrafast light energy conversion at the molecular scale, dir. J. Léonard
The bio-mimetic photo-switches addressed in this project are model systems mimicking the photo-isomerization of rhodopsin, the pigment of vision. The PhD student will use and further develop state-of-the-art laser lab set-up’s for femtosecond-resolved optical spectroscopy to investigate the mechanism of ultrafast light-to-mechanical energy conversion and its applications in molecular rotary devices. The PhD program is funded by the ANR grant “PhotoMecha” (2021-25).
2. Ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic nanostructures probed with High order Harmonics, dir. M. Barthélémy & V. Halté
This project will provide new insights on the role of the exchange interaction and element dependent spin flip processes during the ultrafast demagnetization induced by short laser pulses in ferromagnetic nanostructures.
The PhD student will benefit from our forefront setup developed in the frame of Union Excellence French national program. It uses high harmonics to probe magnetization dynamics with chemical selectivity on transition metals with a few femtoseconds time resolution.
3. Ultrafast spectroscopy of transparent solar cells designed for the near-IR,
dir. S. Haacke
Within the French national project VISION-NIR, we investigate almost transparent dye-sensitized solar cells designed for the near-IR. The kinetic competion between ultrafast processes like electron injection and monomer-to-aggregate energy transfer determines the efficiency of these devices. The PhD student will perform femtosecond fluorescence and transient absorption studies, including two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, on new dyes designed for mitigating loss channels and optimizing injection efficiencies.
Topics 2 and 3 are priority subjects of the Strasbourg graduate school in “Physics & Chemical Physics”. If you’re interested in these topics, please contact the PhD supervisors, before May 12th, 2021.
PhD position in Physics at IPCMS, Strasbourg (France)
Spin-wave propagation along curved magnets
The spin-waves (or magnons) are the low-energy excitations of magnetically ordered materials. In typical ferromagnets, they exist over a range of frequencies (1 GHz – 1THz) and wavelengths (1µm-1nm) which correspond precisely to the time- and length- scales relevant for modern electronics. This suggests the possibility to use spin waves for developing new architectures for data processing, which motivates the emergence of a new field of nanomagnetism and spintronics called “magnonics” [1]… The full description can be found here.
The 3 years PhD position will start in October 2021. Motivated candidates enrolled to obtain a Master’s degree in Physics are asked to email their CV and grades before June 11th to:
Dr Matthieu BAILLEUL ; Dr Yves HENRY
More projects may be found on the webpage of the ED182