Associate Positions at NIST Listings

Communications Technology Laboratory

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Engineering Laboratory

EL position postings

Information Technology Laboratory

ITL position postings

Material Measurement Laboratory

MML position postings

Physical Measurement Laboratory

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High-speed metrology for magnetoelectronic devices and models

Overview

This position focuses on developing film-level optical methods of measuring the Heisenberg exchange parameter in thin films relevant to the magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) industry. These measurements will be correlated with detailed measurements of device performance made on devices fabricated at NIST, and these correlations will be used to develop better models of device switching. In addition, the Associate will work on the development of electrical methods for estimating the attempt time of MRAM bit cells. In each of these projects the Associate will work closely with NIST staff, but the Associate must be self-motivated in designing and executing measurements, developing robust data analysis methods with proper statistical validation, and reporting these results to the group and via publication. This is a fast-paced, high-impact, short-term research position with a maximum duration of 12 months. Note that this is an in-person position located in Boulder, CO.  

Duties

• Designing, building, maintaining, and using optical measurement systems based on inelastic light scattering
• Developing high speed electronic (microwave) measurements, including pulsed, harmonic, sampled and real-time measurement methods using microwave sources, arbitrary waveform
  generators, and oscilloscopes
• Analyze heterogeneous data sources including optical spectra, read- and write-error rate datastreams, real-time and sampled high speed electronic traces.
• Analyze temperature-dependent magnetization data using advanced atomistic fitting models
• Fabricating magnetoelectronic devices using optical and electron beam lithography, reactive and physical ion etching methods.
• Presenting results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders.
• Ensuring that results, protocols, software, and documentation have been archived or otherwise transmitted to the larger organization.

Qualifications

• A Ph.D. in Physics, Electrical Engineering, or related field. Several years of post-degree experience in relevant areas preferred.
• Experience with the design and fabrication of magnetic nanostructures including magnetron sputter and e-beam evaporative deposition or molecular beam epitaxy, electron-beam and photo-lithography
• Experience with characterization tools including SQUID, Ferromagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, MOKE, x-ray reflectometry, secondary-ion mass spectrometry.
• Demonstrated experience with micromagnetic simulation tools including MuMAX
• Demonstrated experience in temperature-dependent magnetic simulations, in particular atomistic simulations of the temperature-dependence of magnetization
• Experience developing novel data acquisition platforms to acquire DC and RF data at scale.
• Familiarity with scripting languages including Python and their implementation on GPU clusters for data analysis.
• Ability to develop tools needed to analyze large datasets using Python, MATLAB, or similar programming environments.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Track recording of publishing in peer reviewed scientific journals.
• US citizenship preferred.

How to express interest

Candidates who meet all of the required qualifications are invited to express their interest in the position by sending an updated CV to Dr. Matthew Pufall  at matthew.pufall [at] nist.gov (matthew[dot]pufall[at]nist[dot]gov).

Quantum Control Research Physicist

Overview 

NIST seeks a Principal Investigator to lead a program to develop algorithms and firmware for RFSoC electronics to better control qubits and quantum sensors. The successful candidate is expected to develop, test, and gradually make publicly accessible a scalable FPGA-based RFSoC quantum control system to perform direct digital synthesis (DDS) without up- and down conversion, for multiplexed microwave drive and readout of quantum systems, including quantum sensors and qubits. Also, to develop a system where the electronics are able to track the frequency drift of a large group of resonators located densely in frequency space. The system should be able to modify its output to match those multi-tone drifts within a few hundreds of nanoseconds. When developed, the algorithm should predict the likely drift of the resonance in the coming few microseconds of time, and feed forward into the output signal before those drifts occur. With minor modification, the same quantum control system would be suitable for doing error budget analysis and error correction for a mid-sized superconducting qubit system.

Duties

• Develop an RFSoC-based quantum control system as described in the Overview section above.
• Demonstrate the quantum control system using superconducting qubits and arrays of quantum sensors provided by NIST including microwave kinetic inductance detectors and superconducting transition-edge sensors with microwave multiplexed readout.
• Assist NIST staff with qubit operation and the design and execution of qubit-based experiments.
• Produce high-quality publications based on research and present results at internal and external meetings and conferences.
• When appropriate, publicly disseminate software and firmware. 

Required Skills, Expertise and Qualifications 

• A PhD in physics, electrical engineering, or a closely related field.
• At least five years of experience post PhD measuring superconducting qubits and superconducting sensors using microwave techniques.
• At least five years of experience post PhD developing FPGA-based readout and control systems for superconducting qubits or sensors.
• At least five years of experience post PhD developing scientific software in Python for instrument control and data taking.
• At least five years of experience post PhD with millikelvin cryogenic systems, including experience designing and characterizing microwave electrical signal chains that connect room temperature to the millikelvin stage. 

Additional Desirable Skills, Expertise and Qualifications 

• US citizenship preferred.
• At least three years of experience post PhD with either the design or fabrication of superconducting qubits. 

Employment Terms 

• This opportunity is to be an associate researcher in the NIST Quantum Sensors Division, located in Boulder, Colorado. Funds to support relocation are not available.
• Associate researchers are NOT federal employees, but they work closely with NIST researchers.
• Project end date is February 29, 2028. Successful candidates may have options to renew and/or pursue longer-term federal employment.
• Salary commensurate with experience; not to exceed $184,400/year. 

How to express interest 

Candidates who meet all of the required qualifications are invited to express their interest in the position by sending an updated CV to Dr. Joel Ullom via joel.ullom [at] nist.gov . 

NIST Center for Neutron Research

Also see Associate Positions at NIST landing page.