Doctoral Positions in X-ray spectroscopy: Theory and Experiment

At Department of Physics, Stockholm University we have opened two PhD positions. Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) has become one of the most powerful probes of charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom in molecules and materials, but interpreting its spectra requires theoretical tools that have not kept pace with experimental progress. This project will build a multi-level RIXS simulation toolkit within the open-source CP2K code, combining linear-response TDDFT/TP-DFT, wavefunction-in-DFT embedding schemes (interfaced with OpenMolcas and DICE), and – in collaboration with IBM Research – a quantum-computing interface via Qiskit. The toolkit will be applied to two frontier experimental themes: (1) charge-transfer excitations along photochemical reaction coordinates in push-pull chromophores, photoacids, and photoactive metal complexes in solution, and (2) the insulator-metal transition and electron-phonon coupling in vanadium oxides (VO2 and V2O3), studied by high-resolution RIXS at the V L- and O K-edges. We are now recruiting four doctoral researchers to join this collaboration: two at UZH and SU developing the theoretical toolkit, and one at PSI carrying out the experiments, all working in close, continuous exchange. We seek motivated and creative candidates with a collaborative mindset eager to learn new skills, and with a strong background in either electronic structure calculations or spectroscopy. On-line application forms can be reached through:

• https://su.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:973780/where:4/
• https://su.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:973805/where:4/

Preliminary starting date Feb 2027. As part och a European collaboration involving theoretical and experimental groups, you will be involved also in experiments. The project ”Theory Development for High-Resolution RIXS Experiments on Liquid Solutions and Solid Materials” is based on a collaboration between Prof. Marcella Iannuzzi (University of Zurich) and Prof. Michael Odelius (Stockholm University) which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Partner organisations include Dr. Teodoro Laino (IBM Research), Prof. Thorsten Schmitt (Paul Scherrer Institut), and Prof. Lothar Weinhardt (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT Light Source). For more information, about the four PhD positions in the collaboration: https://www.cp2k.org/positions#four_doctoral_positions_in_rixs_theory_and_experiment