Thesis project (BSc/MSc): How does nature break symmetry?

Work Activities
Many molecules and crystals exist in two mirror-image forms (left- and right-handed). Yet in nature, and especially in living systems, often one handedness dominates. How can a system in which left and right are energetically equivalent still end up choosing a side?

Fig.1: Chiral asymmetry in nature at various scales. Source: Zang, G (2023)

In this thesis project you will study the crystallization of chiral crystals and the emergence and amplification of chirality. The work is inherently interdisciplinary: chemistry (solution conditions, additives, kinetics) meets physics (transport, non-equilibrium growth, instabilities, pattern formation) in the context of biology (the origin of life, bio-inspired processes). Because we explore multiple connected questions, you can co-design the thesis direction based on your interests, ranging from hands-on experiments to modeling and quantitative data analysis.

You will learn

• Crystallization experiments and experimental design
• Optical microscopy and time-lapse imaging
• Quantitative analysis and scientific interpretation
• Working across the interface of physics and chemistry

Reference:

Zhang, G., Cheng, X., Wang, Y., & Zhang, W. (2023). Supramolecular chiral polymeric aggregates: Construction and applications. Aggregate, 4(1), e262.

Qualifications
BSc/MSc students in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science or an interdisciplinary track such as Bèta-Gamma. Curiosity and motivation matter more than specific prior techniques.

Work environment
The internship will be conducted in the Self-Organizing Matter group, headed by Prof. dr. Wim Noorduin. Our group focuses on the dynamic interplay between chemical reactions and crystallization phenomena to control the emergence of complexity in the solid state. His group is known for designing physical/chemical schemes to self-organize complex materials and develop new chiral amplification methods for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure building blocks. Current research includes the development of new routes to control crystallization, material composition, shape and hierarchical organization of mineralized structures and the design of physical/chemical feedback mechanisms to self-correct and amplify the emergence of complexity.

AMOLF is a part of NWO-I and initiate and performs leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

Working conditions
At the start of the traineeship your trainee plan will be set out, in consultation with your AMOLF supervisor.

Supervision by: Tess Heeremans (PhD candidate, Self-Organizing Matter group, AMOLF): I care strongly about the joy of doing science and aim to provide both freedom to follow your curiosity and structured support to build solid scientific skills.

Location: Experiments will mainly be performed at AMOLF (Science Park, Amsterdam) in the Self-Organizing Matter group of Prof.dr. Wim Noorduin. Depending on the thesis angle, collaboration with other groups at AMOLF and the Institute of Physics and HIMS at the UvA is possible/encouraged.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Tess Heeremans: t.heeremans@amolf.nl

Link to group website: Wim Noorduin - AMOLF

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below. Please annex your:

• Resume
• List of followed courses
• Motivation Letter

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

PhD position Chiral Light Emitting Metasurfaces

Work Activities
How do you make a light source that is directional, has a controlled wavefront, and a controlled polarization out of an intrinsically incoherent and disordered set of emitters, like fluorophores in an LED phosphor? This is a defining question in the field of light-emitting metasurfaces, with applications in LEDs, incandescent lighting and VR/AR display pixels. While it is understood how to shape intensity, e.g. making LEDs directional with nanostructures, a completely open question is how to shape polarization of emission at will. This touches on an emerging field in nanophotonics: chirality, which in the light field expresses as circular polarization. Circularly polarized fluorescent light sources are for instance pursued for pixels in 3D display technology. You will work on realizing chiral light emitting devices combining both intrinsically chiral emitters, and nanophotonic engineering through optical metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces, i.e., nanostructured 2D scattering surfaces can impact chirality in two ways. On one hand, there is interest in using the geometry of metasurfaces to ‘spoof’ chirality: imparting chiral emission and absorption properties on light-emitting matter that is not itself microscopically chiral, On the other hand, matter such as light emitting molecules may itself be chiral. While molecular chirality is intrinsically weak, there are claims that on the nanoscale optical resonances can be ‘superchiral’, and will boost the enantioselective properties of molecularly chiral absorber and emitter materials.

In this project you will work with novel world-record strength chiral emitter systems derived from OLED (organic light emitting polymer LED) materials developed by M. Fuchter and J. Wade (Oxford Univ. and Imperial College). We aim to address two main questions. First, we aim to uncover the microscopic origin of the record-strength chiral nature of fluorescence from these materials. It is well known in nanophotonics that you can unravel the properties of fluorescent transitions by placing matter in controlled environments (cavities, multilayers), that exert known cavity QED effects. You will extend this toolbox to chiral/polarimetrically resolved versions to elucidate the transition dipole moments, radiative lifetimes and handed far field angular emission properties. Second, we aim to address the question how you can manipulate and enhance microscopic chirality by metasurface resonances.

This project will involve fluorescence microscopy, polarimetry, fluorescence lifetime measurements, transient absorption spectroscopy, metasurface design and nanofabrication, and will build on already available strengths in these techniques as well as numerical and analytical theoretical descriptions. The work is under joint supervision of F. Koenderink at AMOLF and S. Mann at UvA, and benefits for collaboration on the materials aspects with M. Fuchter and J. Wade.

Qualifications
You have a MSc degree in physics, optics, photonics, physical chemistry, nanoscience, or a related field.

Work environment
The project will be a collaboration between the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF and the team of Dr. Sander Mann at the nearby Institute of Physics at University of Amsterdam. You will be employed at AMOLF and be embedded in the AMOLF team, but will also participate in work discussions and events at the UvA team.

AMOLF is a national research institute and is part of NWO-I. Its mission is to initiate and perform leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The research activities in the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF (PI Femius Koenderink) aim at developing nanoscale photonic structures, such as metasurface optics, optical nanoantennas and resonators to control scattering, emission, amplification and detection of light. Our work has applications in the domains of nanophotonic light sources, optical metrology, microscopy, and wavebased information processing.

The LightMatters group at the University of Amsterdam (PI Sander Mann) focuses on incoherent emission of thermal origin, both for nanophotonic control of thermal radiation and thermal transport inside materials.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 3.115 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Femius Koenderink: f.koenderink@amolf.nl

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

PhD position Chiral Light Emitting Metasurfaces

Work Activities
How do you make a light source that is directional, has a controlled wavefront, and a controlled polarization out of an intrinsically incoherent and disordered set of emitters, like fluorophores in an LED phosphor? This is a defining question in the field of light-emitting metasurfaces, with applications in LEDs, incandescent lighting and VR/AR display pixels. While it is understood how to shape intensity, e.g. making LEDs directional with nanostructures, a completely open question is how to shape polarization of emission at will. This touches on an emerging field in nanophotonics: chirality, which in the light field expresses as circular polarization. Circularly polarized fluorescent light sources are for instance pursued for pixels in 3D display technology. You will work on realizing chiral light emitting devices combining both intrinsically chiral emitters, and nanophotonic engineering through optical metasurfaces.

Metasurfaces, i.e., nanostructured 2D scattering surfaces can impact chirality in two ways. On one hand, there is interest in using the geometry of metasurfaces to ‘spoof’ chirality: imparting chiral emission and absorption properties on light-emitting matter that is not itself microscopically chiral, On the other hand, matter such as light emitting molecules may itself be chiral. While molecular chirality is intrinsically weak, there are claims that on the nanoscale optical resonances can be ‘superchiral’, and will boost the enantioselective properties of molecularly chiral absorber and emitter materials.

In this project you will work with novel world-record strength chiral emitter systems derived from OLED (organic light emitting polymer LED) materials developed by M. Fuchter and J. Wade (Oxford Univ. and Imperial College). We aim to address two main questions. First, we aim to uncover the microscopic origin of the record-strength chiral nature of fluorescence from these materials. It is well known in nanophotonics that you can unravel the properties of fluorescent transitions by placing matter in controlled environments (cavities, multilayers), that exert known cavity QED effects. You will extend this toolbox to chiral/polarimetrically resolved versions to elucidate the transition dipole moments, radiative lifetimes and handed far field angular emission properties. Second, we aim to address the question how you can manipulate and enhance microscopic chirality by metasurface resonances.

This project will involve fluorescence microscopy, polarimetry, fluorescence lifetime measurements, transient absorption spectroscopy, metasurface design and nanofabrication, and will build on already available strengths in these techniques as well as numerical and analytical theoretical descriptions. The work is under joint supervision of F. Koenderink at AMOLF and S. Mann at UvA, and benefits for collaboration on the materials aspects with M. Fuchter and J. Wade.

Qualifications
You have a MSc degree in physics, optics, photonics, physical chemistry, nanoscience, or a related field.

Work environment
The project will be a collaboration between the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF and the team of Dr. Sander Mann at the nearby Institute of Physics at University of Amsterdam. You will be employed at AMOLF and be embedded in the AMOLF team, but will also participate in work discussions and events at the UvA team.

AMOLF is a national research institute and is part of NWO-I. Its mission is to initiate and perform leading fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The research activities in the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF (PI Femius Koenderink) aim at developing nanoscale photonic structures, such as metasurface optics, optical nanoantennas and resonators to control scattering, emission, amplification and detection of light. Our work has applications in the domains of nanophotonic light sources, optical metrology, microscopy, and wavebased information processing.

The LightMatters group at the University of Amsterdam (PI Sander Mann) focuses on incoherent emission of thermal origin, both for nanophotonic control of thermal radiation and thermal transport inside materials.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 3.115 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Femius Koenderink: f.koenderink@amolf.nl

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

PhD position - Electro-optically Tunable Meta Circuits for Wavefront Shaping

Work Activities
How do you shape light extremely fast and with high precision? Can you make programmable pixels that are fed light by integrated optics, and that can be programmed to project a designer beam, focus, or wavefront into free space? The goal of the METAPIC project is to develop the technology to do this. You will build so-called metasurface pixels, that can sit on a single chip and quickly change how they direct light. The metasurface pixels are patches filled with 2D arrays of scatterers (‘meta-atoms’) precisely tailored for diffractive outcoupling and wavefront shaping at the same time. Each metasurface pixel receives light from waveguides on the chip. By using the latest advances in electrooptic nonlinear materials, these waveguides can adjust the brightness and phase of the light at very high speed.

The METAPIC project is an academic research project funded by the Groeifonds Photon Delta, and led by expert in integrated optics, Imran Avci at Free University Amsterdam (VU). We will combine this expertise with state of the art metasurface design, nanofabrication and characterization techniques that have their home base at AMOLF. We will work together with industry partners, notably including Rapid Photonics and PlanOPSim. Together we aim to develop the technology to create a low-loss and scalable system for dynamic control of light. This technology could have an impact on fields such as measurement science, LiDAR, adaptive optics and VR/AR.

In this project you will develop a design and fabrication strategy for integrated optics and metasurfaces on electrooptic nonlinear materials, and you will have access to the AMOLF nanolab cleanroom to realize these designs. You will use state of the art microscopy methods to map the performance of your structures, moving to progressively more advanced prototypes. This project is ideal if you like to be involved in a PhD that covers the full cycle of numerical design, nanofabrication, and optics characterization, and if you have a keen interest in working towards real-world impact by working with dutch industry partners in the Photon Delta ecosystem.

Qualifications
You have a MSc degree in physics, optics, photonics, nanoscience, or a related field.

Work environment
The project will be a collaboration between the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF and the team of Dr. Imran Avci at the VU (Free University, Amsterdam). You will be employed at AMOLF and be embedded in the AMOLF team. The project will involve work discussions and collaboration with the VU team, as well as interaction with the industry partners.

AMOLF is a national institute that is part of NWO-I. Its mission is to initiate and perform fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The research activities in the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF (PI Femius Koenderink) aim at developing nanoscale photonic structures, such as metasurface optics, optical nanoantennas and resonators to control scattering, emission, amplification and detection of light. Our work has applications in the domains of nanophotonic light sources, optical metrology, microscopy, and wavebased information processing.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 3.115 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Femius Koenderink: f.koenderink@amolf.nl and .

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.

PhD position - Electro-optically Tunable Meta Circuits for Wavefront Shaping

Work Activities
How do you shape light extremely fast and with high precision? Can you make programmable pixels that are fed light by integrated optics, and that can be programmed to project a designer beam, focus, or wavefront into free space? The goal of the METAPIC project is to develop the technology to do this. You will build so-called metasurface pixels, that can sit on a single chip and quickly change how they direct light. The metasurface pixels are patches filled with 2D arrays of scatterers (‘meta-atoms’) precisely tailored for diffractive outcoupling and wavefront shaping at the same time. Each metasurface pixel receives light from waveguides on the chip. By using the latest advances in electrooptic nonlinear materials, these waveguides can adjust the brightness and phase of the light at very high speed.

The METAPIC project is an academic research project funded by the Groeifonds Photon Delta, and led by expert in integrated optics, Imran Avci at Free University Amsterdam (VU). We will combine this expertise with state of the art metasurface design, nanofabrication and characterization techniques that have their home base at AMOLF. We will work together with industry partners, notably including Rapid Photonics and PlanOPSim. Together we aim to develop the technology to create a low-loss and scalable system for dynamic control of light. This technology could have an impact on fields such as measurement science, LiDAR, adaptive optics and VR/AR.

In this project you will develop a design and fabrication strategy for integrated optics and metasurfaces on electrooptic nonlinear materials, and you will have access to the AMOLF nanolab cleanroom to realize these designs. You will use state of the art microscopy methods to map the performance of your structures, moving to progressively more advanced prototypes. This project is ideal if you like to be involved in a PhD that covers the full cycle of numerical design, nanofabrication, and optics characterization, and if you have a keen interest in working towards real-world impact by working with dutch industry partners in the Photon Delta ecosystem.

Qualifications
You have a MSc degree in physics, optics, photonics, nanoscience, or a related field.

Work environment
The project will be a collaboration between the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF and the team of Dr. Imran Avci at the VU (Free University, Amsterdam). You will be employed at AMOLF and be embedded in the AMOLF team. The project will involve work discussions and collaboration with the VU team, as well as interaction with the industry partners.

AMOLF is a national institute that is part of NWO-I. Its mission is to initiate and perform fundamental research on the physics of complex forms of matter, and to create new functional materials, in partnership with academia and industry. The institute is located at Amsterdam Science Park and currently employs about 140 researchers and 80 support employees. www.amolf.nl

The research activities in the Resonant Nanophotonics group at AMOLF (PI Femius Koenderink) aim at developing nanoscale photonic structures, such as metasurface optics, optical nanoantennas and resonators to control scattering, emission, amplification and detection of light. Our work has applications in the domains of nanophotonic light sources, optical metrology, microscopy, and wavebased information processing.

Working conditions

• The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
• The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
• The starting salary is 3.115 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
• After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at a Dutch University.
• Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.
• AMOLF assists any new foreign PhD-student with housing and visa applications and compensates their transport costs and furnishing expenses.

More information?
For further information about the position, please contact Femius Koenderink: f.koenderink@amolf.nl and .

Application
You can respond to this vacancy online via the button below.

Online screening may be part of the selection.

Diversity code
AMOLF is highly committed to an inclusive and diverse work environment: we want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select on the basis of competencies and talents. We strongly encourage anyone with the right qualifications to apply for the vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, sexual orientation or physical ability.

AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Commercial activities in response to this ad are not appreciated.