ICFO is offering a postdoctoral position to a well-qualified, highly motivated and dynamic young scientist who wishes to enhance his/her scientific career in a friendly and stimulating environment.
The successful candidate will be joining the Nanophotonics Theory group led by Prof. Dr. Javier Garcia de Abajo.
We aim to design waveguides integrated within a planar geometry, incorporating efficient in- and out-couplers to interface with external light sources. This architecture will serve as a platform for developing both optical sensors and optical signal processors, leveraging existing integrated photonics technologies. The approach focuses on using mature and commercially available photonic integration solutions to ensure scalability, compatibility, and cost-effectiveness.
The project requires extensive electromagnetic modeling to optimize the waveguide structures for minimal loss, efficient confinement, and effective mode matching with external optical components. Particular attention will be given to the design of couplers that enable low-loss light injection and extraction, which are critical for device performance. In addition to waveguide optimization, the work involves comprehensive simulations of the proposed functionalities, including the waveguide ability to detect the presence of analytes.
These sensing capabilities will be explored through both optical absorption mechanisms and phase modulation effects, which can be interrogated using on-chip interferometric configurations such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers. By quantifying changes in the guided mode due to the interaction with analytes, we aim to establish a foundation for compact, sensitive, and fast photonic sensing devices. The same waveguide platform will also be evaluated for use in signal processing applications, where phase-sensitive elements can enable filtering, switching, or modulation functionalities within an integrated photonics framework.
Candidates must hold, at the time of contract initiation, an internationally-recognized Ph.D.-equivalent degree (or evidence of its completion in the nearest future) preferably in photonics.
The candidate should have experience in electromagnetic simulations and their application in practical problems, in particular in the explanation of sensing experiments.
ICFO is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are selected exclusively on merit and potential on the basis of submitted application material. No restrictions related to disabilities, citizenship or gender apply to ICFO positions. ICFO abides by the principles of openness, efficiency, transparency, supportiveness, and international comparability as stated in the European Charter for Researchers and the European Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.
The contract is offered for a period of 1 year.
Additionally, a family allowance is also available on request and after corresponding approval for people with family charges in the terms described in the corresponding policy.
Suitable candidates are requested to submit:
- Presentation letter with a declaration of interest,
- Curriculum Vitae, including contact details,
The contact e-mail of two potential referees.
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Candidates will be assessed as they apply and the call will remain open until the suitable candidate is identified.
Candidates may contact [email protected] for formal enquiries regarding the application, as well as address scientific enquiries to [email protected].
For update information about the hosting group, please visit https://www.icfo.eu/research-group/26/nanophotonics-theory/home/10305.
For updated information about ICFO, please visit https://www.icfo.eu.
Until positions are filled.
