项目介绍

2026年2月13日

Optical clocks have reached a precision of better than 10-18, which enables them to resolve the relativistic time dilation by only 1cm height difference in the gravitational field of earth. They are useful for searches of physics beyond the standard model, exploration of many-body physics, and societal applications, such as navigation. So far, clocks operate in a pulsed manner, preparing a sample of ultracold atoms and then interrogating that sample. Reaching the ultimate precision needs averaging of 10 thousand samples, taking several hours.

You will join a team building clocks that will overcome this limitation, effectively interrogating the atomic sample continuously. This enables reaching the ultimate precision already after just a few minutes, which is useful for many applications. We want to achieve this by creating clocks that can operate truly continuously, using technology that we have developed to achieve continuous Bose-Einstein condensation [Nature 606, 683 (2022)]. We are building two types of such clocks: a superradiant clock and a zero-deadtime clock. A superradiant clock is a laser that lases on an ultranarrow optical transition. You can read about our plans for this clock in Sheng Zhou’s PhD thesis. For the zero-deadtime clock, we supply atoms from a continuous ultracold Sr source to four clock interrogation zones that are in one vacuum chamber. Clock interrogation can always be executed in at least one zone, while others are reloaded with atoms, enabling continuous operation. With this PhD position you can contribute to both efforts.

This is what you will do

You will join a team of several PhD students and postdocs to further develop our continuous optical clocks. This includes experimental work with the clocks, such as debugging and data taking, designing and constructing upgrades to the machines, data analysis, literature research, and article writing. You will also take an active role in group activities, such as bachelor and master student education, presentation of your work, and societal outreach.

What we ask of you

We are looking for someone who is excited about pushing novel types of ultracold atom experiments to new reals of AMO physics. You also should have

• a recent master in experimental ultracold atom or trapped ion physics;
• great team working skills;
• initiative and good time management skills;
• good communication skills in oral and written English.

This is what we offer you

We offer a temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week ranges between € 3,059 to € 3,881 (Scale P). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD candidate is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.

The preferred starting date is to be discussed. This employment should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.