Postdoctoral Researcher

The Department of Physics is seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Researcher within the newly funded Research Council of Finland project DopCool (Doppler and Sympathetic Cooling for Ultra-High Precision Mass Measurements of Short-Lived Radioactive Ions), hosted at the IGISOL facility within the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä. The position will start in November 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter, for a duration of 1 year with the possibility of extension by another 2 years. The position is fixed-term, as it is related to the research project DopCool. The project will pioneer laser-based cooling techniques for short-lived radioactive ions and establish a new experimental paradigm for ultra-high-precision mass measurements at the IGISOL facility and beyond. Using lasers, the ions will be slowed and cooled close to absolute zero before injection into the JYFLTRAP Penning trap mass spectrometer. The ultra-high-precision mass measurements will be key to testing the limits of the Standard Model of particle physics and to exploring possible new physics. The postdoctoral researcher will take a leading role in the installation and operation of the laser systems, in the optimization of the laser-cooling trap built by our collaboration partners at KU Leuven, in the first Doppler and sympathetic cooling measurements of stable and radioactive ions and in the integration of the laser-cooling trap with the JYFLTRAP Penning trap mass spectrometer. Furthermore, the postdoctoral researcher will have opportunities to participate in mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopic measurements, to propose and conduct measurements at IGISOL, and to collaborate with researchers from all over the world. The postdoctoral researcher will work in an international environment at the IGISOL facility, within the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä. The facility is used to conduct research at the intersection of fundamental symmetries, nuclear and atomic physics using techniques in laser spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and ion trapping. The selected postdoctoral researcher will:Develop laser-cooling techniques for trapped ions including the setup and operation of laser systems, Optimize the laser-cooling trap, etc.