Postdoc researcher (M/F) in Plasma Physics

CNRS; France; Sur place; EUR 45 000 - 60 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

A leading research organization in France is seeking a researcher for a project on superconductors and fusion power plants. The role focuses on validating modelling tools through tokamak simulations and understanding plasma confinement time. Candidates should have a PhD in magnetised plasma physics and programming skills in Fortran/C. This position is fully funded and offers a collaborative environment with international partnerships.

Qualifications

• PhD required for extended knowledge in magnetised plasma physics.
• Experience in integrated modelling simulations is beneficial.
• Familiarity with parallelised codes programming required.

Responsabilités

• Validate modelling tools against experimental observations.
• Perform tokamak simulations for integrated modelling.
• Investigate dependence of confinement time on engineering parameters.

Connaissances

Extended knowledge of magnetised plasma physics

Experience in integrated modelling simulations

Experience in numerics

Programming (Fortran/C)

Use of analysis tools like Matlab or Python

Formation

PhD in plasma physics

Description du poste

Organisation/Company CNRS Department Physique des Interactions Ioniques et Moléculaires Research Field Physics Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Country France Application Deadline 15 Dec 2025 - 23:59 (UTC) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Feb 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The present offer, for which Aix-Marseille University will be the employer, takes place in the frame of the SF-PLANT project of PEPR SupraFusion which aims at assessing the impact of high temperature superconductors in the design of fusion power plants.
The prediction of plasma confinement in future power plants rely on experimentally inferred scaling laws. These scaling laws give the energy confinement time as a function of engineering parameters like for instance the toroidal magnetic field, plasma current or heating power. The experimental correlations between some of these engineering parameters prevents a clear separation of their impact in scaling laws. In addition, the operating regime of future power plants is far beyond that of existing devices requiring to extrapolate the predictions with large associated uncertainties.
Recently, tokamak simulations have been shown to recover the basic dependencies of the energy confinement time on plasma current and magnetic field, performing even better than scaling laws. This opens an extremely interesting avenue where tokamak simulations (integrated modelling) can be used to better understand the dependencies obtained in scaling laws and better constrain them beyond the existing experimental space. This is the goal of the present project.

The first part of the project will consist in the validation of the modelling tools against experimental observations. This will be achieved by performing tokamak simulations with the High Fidelity Pulse Simulator used for integrated modelling at ITER and Eurofusion. Experimental cases from the tokamaks ASDEX Upgrade (Germany) and WEST (France) will be selected to investigate the dependence of confinement time on the aspect ratio. This study will then be extended to plasmas from the TCV and DIII-D tokamaks to investigate the dependence of confinement on plasma triangularity.
Based on these validated simulations, the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed scalings will be investigated, paying special attention to the role of sheared flows, and refined scaling laws, including triangularity dependence and decoupling aspect ratio and elongation, will be proposed.

The candidate will join the « Plasma Theory and Modelisation » team of the PIIM Laboratory at Aix-Marseille University. Since the 90's, the PIIM laboratory contributes to magnetic fusion plasma research. The PTM team is particularly active in this field with numerous collaborations at the regional (IRFM, CEA Cadarache), national (Fédération Française de Fusion par Confinement Magnétique), European (Eurofusion) and international (Japan, Brasil, US) level. The team is very visible internationally with regular invited contributions to the main plasma physics conferences.

Extended knowledge of magnetised plasma physics (PhD), ideally in the context of tokamak plasmas. Experience in integrated modelling simulations would help.
Experience in numerics: use of parallelised codes, programming (Fortran/C), use of analysis tools like Matlab or Python