Postdoc in Experimental Exotic Atom Research

Postdoc in Experimental Exotic Atom Research

Austrian Academy of Sciences

Vienna, Austria

€ 70.167,44 per year gross

A Postdoc position is available from September 2026 in the MBI Exotic Atoms group. The successful candidate will work on two projects. Firstly, positronium & positronium chemistry experiments at MBI Vienna which contribute to several fields such as PET scans and materials analysis, antihydrogen chemistry, and astrophysics. Secondly, development of the ASACUSA collaboration’s antihydrogen beam at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator facility which is intended to perform spectroscopy on the antihydrogen ground-state hyperfine structure.

Your Tasks

• Positronium chemistry studies
  • Simulate, construct & perform novel experiments to measure the propeties of positronium compounds, such as positronium hydride.
  • Develop new experiments with positronium and positronium compounds.
  • Upgrade and maintain the Vienna positron beamline used for these experiments.
• ASACUSA antihydrogen experiment
  • Participate in antiproton beamtime at CERN to improve the ASACUSA collaboration’s antihydrogen beam. This involves optimisation of cold antimatter plasmas and the interactions of the produced antihydrogen within the plasma and subsequent spectroscopy apparatus.
  • Upgrade and maintain the CERN positron beamline to ensure a constant supply of positrons to the experiment.
• Publish results in high-impact journals and present results at international conferences.
• Teach PhD and Masters students within the group.

Your Profile

• Ph.D. in experimental physics (e.g. atomic physics or antimatter physics).
• Knowledge of atomic/molecular physics (scattering, spectroscopy, beams etc.).
• Experience designing, running and analysing experiments to produce high impact publications.
• Knowledge & experience of common experimental techniques such as:
  • UHV and cryogenics
  • Advanced electronics
• Charged particle, radiation and photon detectors (e.g. MCPs and scintillators)
• Software skills for experiment control (LabView, Python), simulation (SIMION, Comsol/CST, Geant4) and data analysis (Python, C++).

Desirable Skills:

• Knowledge of the following topics:
  • Trapped charged particles (single particle and non-neutral plasma regimes).
  • Positron and positronium physics (positron beams, detection etc.).
  • Ion physics (production, mass spectrometry).
• Proven track-record of both independent and collaborative working to manage projects within a multidisciplinary international scientific environment.
• Experience teaching research students.
• Fluency in Englisch, both written and spoken. German skills beneficial.