Postdoc: Attosecond XFEL & Wakefield Design Lead

Argonne National Laboratory; Lemont (IL); On-site; USD 48,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Argonne National Laboratory's Argonne Accelerator Institute seeks a postdoctoral researcher to design a compact wakefield-driven XFEL for attosecond science. You will lead beam-dynamics and FEL modeling efforts to produce start-to-end simulations, exploring multi-pulse and mode-locked X-ray formats and contributing to a conceptual design report for a scalable, next-generation light source.

The role requires a PhD in accelerator physics or related fields and strong programming with Python,

Qualifications

• PhD completed within the last 5 years, or expected soon, in accelerator physics or a closely related field.
• Candidates with PhDs in physics, applied mathematics, computational science, electrical engineering, or related disciplines with strong interest in accelerator and FEL science will also be considered.

Responsibilities

• Develop and benchmark numerical models of FEL interaction and radiation generation using tools like GENESIS, WarpX, and MITHRA.
• Perform beam-dynamics studies of high-brightness, high-charge electron beams in multi-frequency linac architectures.
• Investigate tailored electron-bunch phase-space distributions for tunable two-color and mode-locked X-ray pulses.
• Carry out start-to-end simulations connecting injector and linac dynamics to FEL performance.
• Explore AI/ML methods and surrogate models to accelerate design studies and parameter scans.

Skills

Python

UNIX/Linux

Computational modeling

Machine learning

Accelerator physics

Education

PhD in accelerator physics

Tools

ELEGANT

GENESIS

WarpX

ImpactX

RF-Track

Job description

Argonne National Laboratory's Argonne Accelerator Institute seeks a postdoctoral researcher to design a compact wakefield-driven XFEL for attosecond science. You will lead beam-dynamics and FEL modeling efforts to produce start-to-end simulations, exploring multi-pulse and mode-locked X-ray formats and contributing to a conceptual design report for a scalable, next-generation light source.

The role requires a PhD in accelerator physics or related fields and strong programming with Python,