A four year fully funded PhD position is available in a multidisciplinary project of the Mathematics of Computational Science (MACS) and the Complex Photonic Systems (COPS) chairs in the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in The Netherlands. The research program is funded by and part of the Shell-NWO Computational Science for Energy Research Programme. The position offers an exciting research opportunity to complete a PhD in a dynamic, stimulating, multidisciplinary and multinational work environment.

Research

In this project, the focus will be on the development of novel discontinuous Galerkin methods for the Maxwell equations to study the absorption of light in photovoltaic cells. This will require both the development of efficient numerical discretizations and solvers for the Maxwell equations, their implementation in highly efficient parallel solvers, and the modelling of the absorption of light in complex nanophotonic media. The absorption of light is modelled by considering absorption as a sequence of scattering events and wave interference. Our approach shows that energy in (disordered) media is transported via eigenchannels, which are computed using a singular value decomposition of the transfer and scattering matrices that are computed using a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations.

This project requires significant advances in both finite element methods to solve the Maxwell equations and in the understanding of the absorption of light in nanophotonic media.

The main research topics are:

• the development, analysis and implementation of an efficient higher order accurate discontinuous Galerkin finite element method and multigrid techniques to solve the time-harmonic Maxwell equations discretized;
• to compute eigenchannels using a singular value decomposition (SVD) and to use these results to study the absorption of light in thin photovoltaic cells.

The successful candidate has an MSc degree in Applied Mathematics or Applied Physics with outstanding study results.

Fixed-term contract: four years.

When fulfilling a PhD position at NWO-I, you will get the status of junior scientist. You will have an employee status and can participate in all the employee benefits NWO-I offers. You will get a contract for four years. Your salary will be up to a maximum of 2,834 euro gross per month. The salary is supplemented with a holiday allowance of 8 percent and an end-of-year bonus of 8.33 percent. You are supposed to have a thesis finished at the end of your four year term with NWO-I. 

A training programme is part of the agreement. You and your supervisor will make up a plan for the additional education and supervising that you specifically need. This plan also defines which teaching activities you will be responsible (up to a maximum of ten percent of your time). The conditions of employment of NWO-I are laid down in the Collective Labour Agreement for Research Centres (Cao-Onderzoekinstellingen), more exclusive information is available at this website under Personeelsinformatie (in Dutch) or under Personnel (in English).  General information about working at NWO-I can be found in the English part of this website under Personnel. The 'Recruitment code' applies to this position.

University of Twente

Mathematics of Computational Science (MACS), Department of Applied Mathematics and the Complex Photonic Systems (COPS)  in the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.