Graduate School Cluster of Excellence‚ CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter
Hamburg, Germany
PhD
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
The education and promotion of young researchers is a key aspect and ingredient for the successful operation of the cluster. Substantial parts of the scientific work are performed by researchers at the early stages of their careers. In particular PhD students and postdocs represent the driving force and backbone of modern scientific developments due to their impartiality, fresh views, and enthusiasm.
Educational program
A specific feature and challenge of the cluster is its pronounced interdisciplinary nature requiring not only the already comprehensive expertise of a single well-defined field but also that of several cross-linked research areas. Even more challenging, working at the interface of two fields such as photonics and biomolecular dynamics requires the combination and merging of different concepts. This endeavor is typically accompanied by new insights and synergetic effects due to the inherently different viewpoints of the previously separate fields. As a consequence, the graduate school offers strong interdisciplinary training that takes into account and interrelates the specific aspects of each area relevant to the corresponding field of research.
Teaching will be structured into intensive courses with topics concerning the three research areas A, B, and C as well as specific workshops on programming, experimental instrumentation, etc. The teaching program rests on the groups whose research areas span the complete range to be taught within the training program. This implies that Ph.D. cutting-edge research projects can be offered in all areas of the cluster. The research areas of the cluster encompass the traditional disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology under the unifying theme of advanced imaging of matter.
Qualification scholarship for master’s students within the Cluster of Excellence „CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter”
Scholarship conditions
The scholarships start at the earliest on 1 April 2024 and are funded with €934 per month for 12 months. If there is a need for further funding after the 12-month scholarship, the Cluster can be contacted to explore further funding options.
Master degree & research areas
The scholarships support the academic qualification in the framework of relevant master's programs of Universität Hamburg, i.e. physics, nanoscience and chemistry. Scholarship holders are required to complete the relevant master study curricula, but also have the opportunity to engage in optional research projects as part of the Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter”. The Cluster explores the dynamics of complex systems, bridging concepts and methodologies for the study of ‘small’ well-controlled quantum systems to ever greater length scales and complexity, from large molecules to solid state systems and nanosystems. It investigates how new functionalities emerge with the increasing complexity and size of a system and how new functionalities can be generated dynamically. International researchers from different disciplines such as physics, chemistry, and structural biology have joined forces to observe, understand, and control these processes in Hamburg.
Please contact the university for more information about the application. If the application deadline cannot be maintained due to the different international term schedules, it is also possible to submit your application after the deadline.
We offer continuously PhD and Postdoc positions in the following core areas, and we invite highly qualified and motivated candidates to apply. Most positions will remain open until filled. For more information contact the respective supervisor:
- A: Designing dynamical emergence in quantum matter
- B: Capturing emergent chemistry
- C: Exploring emergence in heterogeneous systems
A: Designing dynamical emergence in quantum matter
Research in Area A focuses on quantum systems that can be exceptionally well controlled: quantum gases and solids. Here, we aim to understand and control novel functionalities emerging in non-equilibrium or in exquisitely tailored equilibrium settings, functionalities that, so far, do not exist under ambient conditions.
In particular, the research groups will address the following questions:
- How can we increase the critical temperature of non-equilibrium superconductors using optical or electronic driving?
- How can we create, understand and control new classes of interacting systems with topology?
- How can we assemble many-body systems, atom by atom, to achieve particularly robust magnetic or superconducting many-body states?
- What can we gain when harnessing non-classical light to prepare and control collective properties of matter?
A common aspect of all research projects in Area A is that these questions are addressed in close collaboration between experiments in macroscopic solids and model-like systems, such as quantum gas simulators and arrays of magnetic atoms on surfaces. Building on this combination we will address and understand fundamental quantum phenomena that will unveil guiding principles needed by the other areas. Here we can give special attention to the electronic degrees of freedom since the crystalline order suppresses nuclear rearrangements.
Full quantum control over individual atoms will be achieved using scanning tunneling or quantum gas microscopy, whereas the full quantum nature of light will be harnessed in experiments with non-classical light and strong light-matter coupling.
Area A exemplifies the high degree of control that we ultimately want to achieve over the more complex building blocks studied in Areas B and C.
B: Capturing emergent chemistry
Research Area B targets molecules of small to medium size which, despite their limited number of atomic constituents, already possess a large number of degrees of freedom. Emergent behaviour in these systems arises through an intimate coupling between the electronic and nuclear sub-systems, and may be further promoted through interaction with a solvent or surface environment.
In this Area the research groups will address the following central questions:
- Which are the key emergent degrees of freedom underlying chemical reactions?
- How can we use light to enforce a desired chemical reaction pathway?
- Can we predict, identify and control new collective states by utilizing strong light-matter coupling? Can we then tailor chemical processes or phase transitions using photons?
In comparison to Area A, the complexity is increased in Area B through the fact that in chemically reactive processes, the atomic positions are not quasi-harmonically confined; translational periodicity is broken. Emergence in chemistry rests on the resulting dynamical interplay of electronic and nuclear motions, which gives rise to collective degrees of freedom that underlie chemical reactions.
In order to identify and characterize the dynamical pathways taken by the key emergent degrees of freedom, we will utilize powerful X-ray and electron scattering and spectroscopy techniques, in close connection with theory. The resulting insights will provide critical clues for the development of effective optical control strategies for steering chemical reactions.
Achieving this dream of steering chemistry will have ramifications for both Areas A and C, where we ultimately aim to gain optical control over processes as diverse as protein conformation and function or competing phases in solids.
C: Exploring emergence in heterogeneous systems
The research objects of Area C, biological macromolecules and artificial nanostructures, are typical representatives of the next hierarchical level of functionality when compared to medium-sized molecules and bulk solids. Our long-term goal is to achieve a similar amount of understanding and control as in Areas A and B of the processes leading to emergence of functionality in e.g. a protein or an effective photocatalyst.
The research groups will address the following specific questions:
- What is the role of dynamics and heterogeneity in macromolecular function?
- How does structure formation on the nanoscale lead to emergent functionality in natural and artificial nanomaterials?
- How does electron transport emerge between separated nanoscale quantum systems?
These questions are naturally informed by the new understanding of chemistry in Area B and the importance of topology and novel methods of control in Area A, which must be combined with the development of new capabilities to image conformational dynamics at the atomic scale.
It is in Area C where we make use of the XFEL revolution to the greatest extent, in some cases by taking advantage of non-linear regimes opened up in Area A. All projects in Area C additionally require new approaches to sample preparation and theoretical descriptions of complex matter that is driven out of equilibrium.
In Area C, coupled processes on multiple time and length scales are essential for the emergence of functionality. For instance, the coupling of electronic motions to individual nuclei is conditional on the conformational changes of the larger molecular or nanoparticle subsystems. Together with energy sources, for example from the environment, this results in feedback loops producing dynamical changes in the energetic landscapes, which are exploited in biology to greatly enhance and steer chemical reactions in ways that test-tube chemistry cannot. Our ambition is to be able to design such functionalities by controlling basic interactions at the atomic and molecular scales.
In this sense, Area C can be understood as a natural extension of Areas A and B, where we are at the transition from the regime of coherent many-body quantum physics into classical descriptions, which continues to represent a major challenge for an appropriate theoretical description.
The methodologies developed here will become increasingly important to the cluster as our command of matter grows with the increase of complexity and heterogeneity of systems in Area A and Area B.
All PhD students are automatically members of the graduate school and enjoy the many advantages of it. This includes not only intensive courses but also the possibility to apply for funds, in order to visit conferences and workshops or go on collaborative visits to renowned institutes.
Students can organize their own schools using cluster funds and profit from various student activities and events. Training is provided both with respect to the corresponding research work and also with respect to personal and professional skills.
Colloquia and a rich guest program of internationally leading experts complement not only the educational and training program but also offer in particular the unique opportunity to learn about the most recent developments in the corresponding fields firsthand.