We are looking for a university student who will have finished his/her M.Sc. by the time of contract start. He/She will work on time-resolved photoinduced dynamics in polyatomic molecules. The currently available set-up at the Center for Ultrafast Lasers (CLUR) of UCM will be employed to carry out XUV-NIR pump-probe experiments in order to probe the induced molecular dynamics by one-photon ionization in the XUV with femtosecond and sub-femtosecond time resolution. The experiments will be performed on organic chromophores such as aniline and its derivatives using either fragment or photoelectron velocity map imaging. Further experiments using a currently available electron/ion time-offlight spectrometer in conjunction with attosecond XUV pulses will be carried out in small polyatomic molecules and organic chromophores. 
 

Candidate Profile
The successful candidate must have / or be in the process of getting a Master's degree in Physics/Chemistry or similar with a strong background and motivation in light-matter interaction and photoinduced molecular dynamics. Previous experience with ultrafast lasers and programming skills would be highly valued, although not a pre-requisite. Strong teamwork and communication abilities, and the capacity to conduct experiments and bibliographic search independently will be very much appreciated. The PhD work will lead to several dissemination opportunities, both orally at international conferences and through scientific publications.

Working environment
The PhD thesis will take place within the Chemical Reaction Dynamics and Femtochemistry group at UCM in Madrid (Spain) under the supervision of Prof. Sonia Marggi Poullain. The experiments will be carried out mostly at CLUR (https://www.ucm.es/ulc; https://laserlabeurope.eu/about/members/clur/). The group has an extensive expertise in the study of photodynamics of polyatomic molecules in gas-phase induced by both ultrafast lasers, nanosecond and femtosecond to attosecond pulses, as well as synchrotron radiation.