Post-doctoral position : CRISTAL Beamline - unravel the structural issue of nano-objects to their physical or chemical properties using X-ray (coherent) diffraction

SOLEIL is the French national synchrotron facility, located on the Saclay Plateau near Paris. It is a multi-disciplinary instrument and a research laboratory, whose mission is to run research programs using synchrotron radiation, to develop state-of-the-art instrumentation on the beamlines, and to make those available to the scientific community. SOLEIL, a unique tool for both academic research and industrial applications across a wide range of disciplines including physics, biology, chemistry etc., is used by over 5 000 researchers coming from France and abroad. The facility is a “public” company employing about 500 people, founded by the CNRS and the CEA, and partner of the Paris-Saclay University.

The CRISTAL beamline is a hard X-ray (5-30 keV) undulator-based beamline, dedicated to x-ray diffraction for the characterization of the structural properties of mater at different space and time scales, possibly in non-ambient conditions. Among “classical diffraction techniques” like single crystals and powders diffraction, other state of the art techniques are offered (high-resolution, time-resolved and coherent diffraction imaging). CRISTAL serves a wide variety of communities covering a broad range of discipline from among physic, chemistry, biology, materials sciences, earth sciences…The variety of subjects that can be studied at CRISTAL makes it a very stimulating beamline to work on.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with a strong interest in instrumental developments to participate to the scientific activity and developments using Coherent/micro Diffraction Imaging techniques in non-ambient condition

I. Mission

The following tasks will be assigned to the successful candidate :

1. He/She will be in charge of all coherent diffraction experiment performed at the beamline as a local contact.
2. He/she will be part of the instrumental and methodological development programs conducted at the beamline, related to Bragg CDI and micro-diffraction techniques. He/she will conduct the refurbishment program of the dedicated “mini goniometer” to make it compatible with different sample environments.
3. He/She will develop his/her own research. At the beamline, the staff has expertise in the field of correlated systems, functional oxydes, and molecular systems.

Further information about this position can be obtained from: Pierre Fertey (Head of CRISTAL Beamline) – pierre.fertey@synchrotron-soleil.fr

II. Education and Experience

To qualify, applicants must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent (physics, chemistry, material sciences), and significant experience in x-ray diffraction and coherent diffraction techniques (CDI/BCDI, Ptychography, phase retrieval algorithms). Python programming skills are also a prerequisite. The candidate will be part of the software development program conducted at the beamline (control command, data processing) and integrate the most recent programming developments (e.g. machine learning, AI).

Good knowledge and know-how in the field of high pressure experimentation would be appreciated.

The candidate should be fluent in English (written and spoken). Practice of French is also highly desirable.

III. General conditions

The offer concerns a Post-doctoral contract for a two year-period (one-year renewable once). A wide range of valuable training programs, research and upgrading opportunities will be accessible. Moreover, the position benefits of a progressive employment conditions and a flexible work-life balance policy.