Intense Lasers and Particle Beams
Naval Research Laboratory, DC, Plasma Physics
Postdoctoral candidates are sought to carry out research on intense radiation and particle beams interacting in various nonlinear media, including plasmas, gases, liquids, and solids. The research environment is one of close collaboration between experimental and theoretical scientists. The propagation of intense laser radiation in air or water involves a number of physical processes, including nonlinear Kerr focusing, stimulated Raman scattering, filamentation and self-guiding, multi-photon ionization and plasma formation, and others. High intensity laser radiation propagating in plasma can accelerate electrons or ions to high energies in a short distance due to the extreme longitudinal fields that are possible in a plasma. High intensity particle beams propagating in air or other media are subject to nonlinear guiding, as well as disruptive effects. Candidates should have experience with experimental, theoretical, or numerical approaches to addressing the physics issues associated with these processes.
Awardees who reside more than 50 miles from their host laboratory and remain on tenure for at least six months are eligible for paid relocation to within the vicinity of their host laboratory.
A group health insurance program is available to awardees and their qualifying dependents in the United States.