Post-Doctoral Research Associate- Materials Science & Engineering

Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Tennessee ay Knoxville

Scope of the project: The goal of the project, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, is to advance the basic science of liquid and glass, focusing on metallic liquids and glasses. We use simulation as well as inelastic x-ray and neutron scattering as principal tools of research. We are developing new concepts based upon the atomic-level stresses and a new experimental approach with the Van Hove function (time-dependent atomic pair-distribution function) [1]. The experimental data will be obtained using synchrotron-based facilities, including the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Advanced Photon Source (APS, ANL), J-PARC and SPring-8 (Japan), ESRF (France). Possible applications include the development of metallic glasses with better ductility [2] and ionic glasses with higher ionic conductivity [3].  

Description of the work: To carry out the classical and ab-initio molecular dynamics simulation of metallic and other liquids and glasses to determine the origin of atomic mobility and to formulate the new theory of liquid based upon the density wave theory. To carry out inelastic neutron and xray scattering measurements on metallic and other liquids and glasses, and to analyze the results to obtain the Van Hove function, to determine the origin of atomic mobility.

Requirement: Ph.D. degree in Physics, Materials Science, or related areas.

Salary: $60K per year or above.

Contact: Prof. Takeshi Egami, UT-ORNL Distinguished Scientist/Professor, egami@utk.edu.

1.     T. Iwashita, B. Wu, W.-R. Chen, S. Tsutsui, A.Q. R. Baron and T. Egami, Science Advances, 3, e1603079 (2017).

2.     H. Wang, W. Dmowski, Z. Wang, Y. Tong, Y. Yokoyama, J. Ketkaew, J. Schroers and T. Egami, Phys. Rev. Lett., 128, 155501 (2022).

3.     A. S. Westover, M. Kornbluth, T. Egami, J. Liu, S. Kalnaus, D. Ma, A. K. Kercher, J. Neuefeind, M. Everett, B. Kozinsky, N. J. Dudney, Chem. Mater. 35, 2730 (2023).