4-year Theoretical PhD position on Laser-Matter interactions, University College London, UK (Deadline: 27.05.2026)

4-year theoretical Ph.D position at University College London (London UK) on “Ultrafast phenomena instigated by core electron motion in XFEL-driven molecules”. Open to International students as well as UK students.
A 4-year theoretical Ph.D position is available in the group of Prof. Agapi Emmanouilidou. The position is fully funded (stipend and tuition fees are covered) and is open to International students as well as UK students.
The goal will be to significantly advance the state of the art in theoretical and computational techniques in order to investigate coherent excitation and ionization, photoionization time delays in multi-centre molecules driven by ultra-short XFEL pulses as well as to control the interplay of electron and nuclear dynamics during the break-up of XFEL-driven triatomics. FELs are short-wavelength pulses that are orders of magnitude more intense than the pulses provided by conventional light sources, ranging from XUV pulses of a few eV to hard X-rays of a few thousand eV.

The Ph.D student, with the group of Prof. Emmanouilidou, will investigate largely unexplored ultrafast phenomena in XFEL-driven molecules. Such ultrafast phenomena are: • identifying signatures of quantum-interference on ionization spectra due to coherent excitation and ionization, and obtaining the photoionization time delays of inner-shell electrons in multi-centre molecules, with fixed nuclei, driven by ultra-short XFEL-pulses; • controlling the interplay of single-photon ionization and Auger-Meitner processes, the coupling of electron and nuclear motion, and imaging structural dynamics, i.e. the geometry of the nuclei during the break-up of XFEL-driven triatomics. Studying these ultrafast phenomena is a scientific frontier due to their fundamental nature and the remarkable advances in generating ultra-short XFEL-pulses.

The Ph.D student will focus on developing advanced and state-of-the-art quantum-mechanical techniques in order to address these ultrafast phenomena. The Ph.D student will develop the theory with the group of Prof. Emmanouilidou in the Physics and Astronomy Department at University College London. One of the highly exciting aspects of this work is that it involves close collaboration with top experimental groups working on the interaction of molecules with FEL and XFEL pulses at Stanford and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics.

The ideal Ph.D candidate should have strong knowledge of quantum mechanics
and mathematics, should have strong skills in analytical derivations and be willing to acquire computational skills.

If you are interested in this Ph.D position please contact Prof. Agapi Emmanouilidou by e-mail at ucapaem@ucl.ac.uk.