PhD position: Physics, Chemistry, Material Science 1221 views

The Nuclear Fuels group within the Laboratory for Nuclear Materials at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is looking for a PhD Student for its project “Understanding the structural evolution of irradiated nuclear fuel at atomic scale”.

Role and Responsibilities:

• Be involved in preparing radioactive specimens from targeted regions of irradiated UO2 fuel pellets, using the newly installed PSI-HotLab-FIB facility
• Carryout transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses, and join synchrotron radiation based measurements during beam-campaigns at the PSI-SLS
• Interpret experimental data and develop an understanding of the structural evolution of irradiated UO2 at the atomic scale
• Publish results in leading international journals and reputed conference proceedings, and write a PhD thesis on the topic

Requirements:

• Applicant must hold a Master degree in Physics, Chemistry or Material Science
• Highly interested in nuclear materials research
• Prior work experiences with Focused Ion Beam (FIB) micromachining and associated electron microscopy techniques (e.g., SEM, EBSD, TEM, SAD etc.) are a strong asset
• Interested in modern synchrotron radiation based μXRD and μXAS techniques, and in computer modelling work for the interpretation of experimental data
• English proficiency (both speaking and writing), German is advantageous
• Interest to work in a team, in a multi-disciplinary and international environment

Applications:

• Application to be submitted online including addresses of referees (index no. 4602-01).