Laser Modeling Physicist- Postdoctoral Researcher

Company Description

Join us and make YOUR mark on the World!

Are you interested in joining some of the brightest talent in the world to strengthen the United States’ security? Come join Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where our employees apply their expertise to create solutions for BIG ideas that make our world a better place.

We are dedicated to fostering a culture that values individuals, talents, partnerships, ideas, experiences, and different perspectives, recognizing their importance to the continued success of the Laboratory’s mission.

Pay Range

$113,487 - $125,525 Annually

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting; pay will not be below any applicable local minimum wage.  An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

Job Description

We are seeking a Laser Modeling Physicist- Postdoctoral Researcher within our Laser Science and Systems Engineering Program to participate in the research, development, and modeling of advanced solid state laser technology, and high energy laser design for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). This work will take place within the National Ignition Facility & Photon Science (NIF&PS) Directorate, home to the world’s most energetic laser.  It is an exciting time to join the team that achieved fusion ignition in December 2022, a historic moment in science, opening new physics regimes and setting the stage for new fusion energy possibilities.

You will perform design, modeling, and commissioning of cutting-edge laser technology development and potentially execute experiments to verify and validate advanced laser concepts relevant to ICF laser driver architectures, laser propagation/amplification, linear and nonlinear optics and laser matter interaction research. This position is in the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science (NIF&PS) Principal Associate Directorate (PAD).

In this role, you will

• Conduct research and development in one or more of the following areas: modeling and experimental manipulation of beam propagation, optical breakdown in gases, nonlinear effects, frequency conversion and design of advanced laser architectures for the Next Generation of High Energy Density (NG-HED) systems in support of National Security missions.
• Design, implement, and validate with measurements advanced laser physics and nonlinear optics models coupled with the existing LLNL beam propagation code VBL++ (Virtual Beam Line) running on both single and extreme parallel-processor high performance computers.
• Participate in the design of innovative technologies to be deployed at the National Ignition Facility involving kJ laser pulses, gas breakdown, shock-waves generation and particulate generation.
• Organize, analyze, and present data from research with peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences.
• Pursue independent (but complementary) research interests and interact with a broad spectrum of researchers internally and externally to the Laboratory.
• Work within a dynamic team environment to document research; publish papers in peer-reviewed journals, and present results within the DOE community and at conferences.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. DOE Q-level security clearance which requires US citizenship.
• PhD in applied mathematics or physics, laser physics, optics and optoelectronics or related field or discipline.
• Experience in experimental physics in one or more of the following areas: atmospheric beam propagation, optical polarization, solid state lasers, laser cavities, short pulse laser technology, frequency conversion, non-linear optics, crystal optics, computational fluid dynamics, laser-matter interaction.
• Experience with finite element analysis software packages (Ansys, COMSOL or equivalent).
• Experience with Mathematica, MATLAB, Python and/or similar scripting and data analysis tools.
• Experience in developing mathematical models for beam propagation including nonlinear interactions, for long and short pulses
• Experience in numerical methods to efficiently implement and solve these equations in codes.          
• Ability to perform as an innovative researcher with a broad range of experience in experimental design, techniques, and execution.
• Experience developing independent research projects, including publication of peer-reviewed literature.
• Proficient written and verbal communication skil