Work Activities
The High-harmonic generation and EUV science group at ARCNL, Amsterdam, has openings for two positions for postdoctoral researchers (2-year contracts).

Project 1:
You will contribute to some of our ongoing investigations to develop new ultrafast femtosecond to attosecond time-scale semiconductor spectroscopy, imaging and metrology techniques in the soft-X-ray spectral range based on a laboratory-based high-harmonic generation setup. This includes developing soft-X-ray spectroscopic scatterometry to measure nanoscale features of various multilayer semiconductor structures, and develop ultrafast metrology to characterize electrical contacts between different layers in a non-contact way. Your research will contribute to bringing the fundamental field of attosecond science in contact with industrial applications to measure nanoscale structures. Finally, you will use the developed techniques to study dynamics and phase transitions in strongly correlated materials.

Project 2:

In the second project you will further develop harmonic deactivation microscopy (HADES) to study nanoscale sub-wavelength semiconductor structures.

Our group recently demonstrated that high-harmonic generation from solids can be optically suppressed and spatially confined in semiconductors without the need for labelling. This can be utilized as sub-diffraction emission for super-resolution scanning microscopy. In this project you will further develop this in order to reach resolution below 100 nm in a conventional optical microscope operating in the visible and ultraviolet region. This will enable crucial applications for semiconductor wafer metrology. You will demonstrate new in-device metrology by harmonic generation from sub-wavelength structures, and pave the way for additional advanced at-resolution metrology schemes.

Read here more about HADES: Kevin Murzyn, Maarten LS van der Geest, Leo Guery, Zhonghui Nie, Pieter van Essen, Stefan Witte, Peter M Kraus, Breaking Abbe's diffraction limit with harmonic deactivation microscopy, Sci. Adv. 10, eadp3056 (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp3056

Qualifications
You have (or will receive in near future) a PhD degree in physics, physical chemistry, electrical engineering, or a closely related subject. You enjoy performing experiments and analysis to stepwise build a deeper understanding of complex physical mechanisms. For this position, we are in particular looking for a candidate who can combine state of the art ultrafast laser optics with instrument development and building. Thus a solid background in both optics/optics engineering/microscopy and condensed matter physics would be ideal. As such, experience in one or more of the involved topics (high-harmonic generation, microcopy (particularly super-resolution and STED), ultrafast lasers and optics, condensed matter physics, strongly correlated materials, fundamental optical processes in solids, attosecond and femtosecond science, EUV and X-Ray spectroscopy and scattering, vacuum instrumentation), in particular experimentally but also theoretically, is required. As the HADES technique carries similarities with stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, we particularly encourage candidates from this field to apply to the second position.

Very good verbal and written communications skills (in English) are required.

Work environment
ARCNL performs fundamental research, focusing on the physics and chemistry involved in current and future key technologies in nanolithography, primarily for the semiconductor industry. While the academic setting and research style are geared towards establishing scientific excellence, the topics in ARCNL’s research program are intimately connected with the interests of the industrial partner ASML. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 100 persons of which 65 are ambitious (young) researchers from all over the globe. www.arcnl.nl

Working conditions
The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of 2 years, with a salary in scale 10 (CAO-OI) and a range of employment benefits. ARCNL assists any new foreign Postdoc with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Peter Kraus: p.kraus@arcnl.nl

Application
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Diversity code
ARCNL is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

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