PhD position at the Center for Polariton-driven Light-Matter Interactions (POLIMA)

Employment type: Full time. Requisition: 4244.

The Center for Polariton-driven Light-Matter Interactions (POLIMA) at The Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, is seeking a talented and highly motivated PhD student to work on the development of new theoretical frameworks for describing light–matter interactions in advanced van der Walls heterostructures probed by polaritons generated through inelastic tunneling.

The position is funded by a Villum Young Investigator grant awarded to Assistant Professor P. André D. Gonçalves, who will supervise the PhD research. The position is available starting 1 March 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The successful candidate will develop new theoretical frameworks and computational methods to investigate the fundamental limits of polariton-mediated inelastic electron tunneling in tunnel junctions based on van der Waals heterostructures composed of atomically thin materials.

The project will employ a broad range of analytical, semi-analytical, and numerical techniques to explore electrically driven polaritonic phenomena. A major focus will be on harnessing polariton-mediated inelastic electron tunneling as a tool to probe and manipulate light–matter interactions at the nanoscale, as well as to characterize the optoelectronic response of complex quantum materials1 …