Postdoc on Stable Optical Circuits for Quantum Technology

Postdoc on Stable Optical Circuits for Quantum Technology

UvA - University of Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Do you have a background in optics, ultracold atoms or trapped ions? Do you want to have direct impact with your research? Do you enjoy technical projects involving optics, electronics, and software? Are you eager to join a startup and grow it to a successful company with real world impact? The Institute of Physics (IoP) is looking for an ambitious postdoc as part of the Ultracold Strontium Gases group and its spin-off OpticsFoundry B.V.

Join our team!

We are developing technology to robotically manufacture robust optical circuits for quantum technology and beyond. We provided the circuit boards for the AQuRA optical lattice clock and are offering such boards through our spin-off OpticsFoundry. Join us to push this technology to the next level in a collaboration with the Nonlinear Nanophotonics group of UTwente. You will expand our robotic manufacturing capabilities, allowing us to manufacture more versatile optical systems, including lasers, cavities, frequency references and more. If successful, you will be able to join OpticsFoundry and bring your achievements to the market.

What you will do

You will join a fast paced, tightly aligned team building, testing, and iterating cutting edge technology in a startup style environment. You will be expected to operate as an end-to-end problem solver, taking ownership of problems and driving them forward independently, while staying closely connected with the team. You will draw on both your own expertise and that of the team to rapidly identify problems, propose solutions, and prototype, test, and validate new ideas that expand our core technical capabilities. Your work will include designing and building robust optical circuits incorporating new types of elements. These include gain media, active positioning elements such as piezos and stepper motors, cavities, spectroscopy cells, photonic integrated circuits, and more. You will also develop robotic manufacturing techniques to place, align, and integrate these new components into scalable production workflows. You will build and benchmark real, usable optical systems such as laser lock circuits and laser sources, iterating quickly based on experimental results and feedback. In parallel, you will contribute to prototyping, validating, and debugging production processes, and work with users to ensure our solutions are practical, reliable, and genuinely delightful to use. If things go well, you will have the opportunity to join OpticsFoundry, ship advanced optical circuits to customers, and grow with the company as part of the core technical team.

What we ask of you

We are looking for someone who is excited about growing a small startup into a successful company and who loves to creatively solve technical puzzles. You also should have:

• a recent PhD in experimental atomic, molecular and optical physics;
• good skills with optics, and some experience with electronics and control software;
• great team working and learning skills, enabling rapid adaptation to evolving project needs;
• initiative and good time management skills;
• good communication skills in oral and written English.