ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Clark, Thomas" <thomas.clark AT wigner.hun-ren.hu>]

I would like to advertise a postdoctoral researcher position within the 
quantum optics group of the Wigner research centre for physics.

The position is likely funded for around 3 years, subject to starting 
date, and is an international collaboration regarding a new way of 
detecting magnetic fields.

If you, or anyone you know, might be interested then please don't 
hesitate to contact us for more details.

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Building a holographic atomic compass

From the high seas to your lowly kitchen fridge, the humble magnet has
always carried an allure far outside helpful measurement. And yet the
reliable measurement of magnetic fields is useful too. It is crucial to the
future of cancer detection and global navigation and is, importantly,
not a solved problem. Of the many precise ways to detect these fields,
it is a curious thing that we almost always rely on the awkward
combination of three separate measurements; when the compass in your
pocket simply spins. With this in mind, we have recently shown how
shaped light rotating in an atomic gas can be used in magnetic
sensing: replacing multiple measurements across time with a single
photo in space [2-3].

The ability to shape light in this way is a relatively new tool and
largely unknown to the average researcher, but through holographic
considerations, we can give light orbital angular momentum and
consequently transfer this to a cloud of atoms. Most intriguingly of
all, this allows us to use internal atomic transitions like an
abstract interferometer in space, allowing us to make a cloud of atoms
invisible at a pixel-by-pixel level [2]. Such tailored transparency, using
the effects underlying /slow-light/ experiments are then related to
the magnetic field at an atomic level: giving us a mechanism to relate
changes in magnetic field to changes in light patterns [3]. The next big
step however, is to make it useful.

The central aim of this project is to extend the cold-atom proof
to vapour-cell application, but there are still plenty of fundamental
questions for the theoretically minded: ranging from a new use-case for 
angular momentum probability surfaces to Kramers-Kronig violation.

The successful applicant would join an international team that covers 
the UK,
Germany, France and Hungary. In particular, the candidate, with
professional support, would help to build a brand-new lab from
scratch, and would be expected to conduct complimentary experiments
with shaped light and atomic vapours. Although this is a strongly
experimental role, students would be free and encouraged to keep up
with relevant calculations and simulations and, as this is an
internationally funded and internationally facing role, there would be
a strong prospect of travel, both for collaboration and conferencing.

For evidence of the potential impact of this topic, consider that in
the last few years, the foundations of this work have been published
three times in the prestigious /Physical Review Letters/ [2-4] and won 
international funding to build a
globally competitive prototype [1]. If you are worried about that going to
our head however, we make it a point ensure that both physics and
puns are welcome in our lab. For science is a serious business and
heaven forbid that the field of optics is taken lightly...

So, if you would be interested in bringing shaped light and quantum
magnetic sensing to Hungary then don't hesitate to get in touch, please 
send a CV and cover letter to thomas.clark AT wigner.hun-ren.hu with the 
subject "vmag--post-doc".

References
 [1] https://quantera.eu/v-mag/
 [2] 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.123603
 [3] 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.233202
 [4] 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.193803


--
T C W
Clark, Thomas William
Thinker and Tinkerer,
Wigner Research Centre for Physics <https://wigner.hu/en>