Soleil is a particle accelerator that produces synchrotron radiation, extremely powerful light source for exploring inert or living matter. This multidisciplinary tool, indispensable in the fields of research and industrial applications, welcomes more than 3,000 users per year. Financed by two principal shareholders- the CNRS and the CEA- SOLEIL holds a status of “”Public company”. SOLEIL runs continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with uninterrupted periods of up to 7 weeks. SOLEIL staff is composed of about 500 employees, all categories combined (permanent staff, PhD students, post – doctoral students, apprentices ….).
MOON Project
MOON (Optimising MOCVD/ALD growth of Oxides Nanostructures for solar photon conversion by combining modelling and in situ synchrotron X-ray and optical analysis) is a four-year project funded by the French national agency (ANR) in 2011 (kick off on February 2012). The project aims at improving the basic knowledge of the nucleation process and the early stages of growth of ZnO and will investigate, in situ and in real time, the methods of synthesis via state-of-the-art nano-characterization. This will permit to control in details the structural and optical properties in view of application in micronano-devices as micro energy sources. Understanding how the structural and optical properties depend on the MOCVD growth conditions (temperature, gaz composition, growth rate, surface reaction, catalytic activity, thermodynamic stability, etc.) is crucial to increase the performance of photovoltaic devices. The ability to monitor the early stage of growth/thin film deposition in operando enables the study of growth dynamics, growth mechanisms in addition to providing a method for controlling the film thickness on the sub-unit cell level.
The creation of a consortium with several partners (LMGP and SIMAP in Grenoble, Synchrotron SOLEIL in Paris area, IM2NP in Marseille, and in LMOPS in Nancy) has led to the realization of a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and metal-organic atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor optimized for installation on the heavy load-diffractometer available at the SIRIUS beamline of synchrotron SOLEIL. Commissioning of the instrument has been successfully carried out in November 2013, and the first experiments are scheduled starting from April 2014. The different X-ray techniques available at the SIRIUS beamline (GI-XRD, DAFS, MAD, GI-XAS, XRF, GISAXS) will provide a unique characterization tool, since conventional in real time techniques like RHEED do not apply to the case of MOCVD because of the presence of gas at atmospheric pressures in the reactor chamber. X-ray characterization will be coupled with simultaneous RAMAN-LIDAR and wafer curvature measurements.
First, the MOON reactor will be devoted to the growth of ZnO-based nanostructures: as a wide bandgap direct semiconductor material with a high exciton binding energy, ZnO is expected to be employed in a wide variety of nanodevices, especially related to the field of materials for energy. Increasing concerns have been devoted indeed to the incorporation of ZnO nanowires or of nanocrystalline thin films as nanowire building blocks in dye-sensitized solar cells or as transparent conductive oxides for solar cells front side electrodes, respectively. In a second phase, the knowledge and experience acquired on this system will be employed in projects focused on other functionalized oxides such as SrTiO3 and TiO2.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Gianluca Ciatto (gianluca.ciatto@synchrotron-soleil.fr)
1. Mission
We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher (m/f) who will work at the SIRIUS beamline of synchrotron SOLEIL (Saint-Aubin, Paris area, France) under the supervision of the beamline scientist co-proposer of the MOON project (Dr. G. Ciatto), in collaboration with the other partners of the consortium.
- He (She) will be involved in all activities related to the MOON project taking place at SOLEIL (installation, tests, upgrades, in operando experiments, data reduction and analysis) in collaboration with the different partners of our consortium.
- He (She) will develop his/her own scientific ideas using MOON instrumentation during his/her in-house research time.
- He (She) may be involved in other scientific projects of SIRIUS staff in the field of semiconductor thin films and nanostructures, in particular exploiting our new multi-element SDD fluorescence detector.
- He (She) will present the scientific results obtained at SIRIUS in national and international conferences.
2. Qualifications & Experience
The candidate should hold a PhD in Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry, or associated disciplines. Experience with one (or more) of the synchrotron radiation techniques of interest for the MOON project (grazing incidence/surface X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption in fluorescence mode, grazing incidence small angle scattering, anomalous x-ray diffraction, coherent x-ray diffraction) will be highly appreciated. Experience in MOCVD, ALD or other sample growth techniques will be also considered an asset.
The following skills will be appreciated:
- Strong motivation to work in applied physics and materials science, in particular in the field of semiconductor nanostructures and materials for energy.
- Ability in experimental development
- Capacity to work as a team member and in collaboration with different groups.
- Knowledge and expertise in one (or more) of the x-ray techniques listed above
- Knowledge in x-ray data treatment and analysis
The position requires multidisciplinary skills, sense of responsibility and autonomy together with the ability to work within a team.
The candidate must be fluent in English (written and spoken). Knowledge of French may be useful, but it is not required.
3. General conditions
This offer concerns a post-doctoral contract for a one year-period (funded by the ANR). The position might be renewed for another year. The remuneration will be based on the SOLEIL salary scale. A wide range of valuable training programs, research and upgrading opportunities will be accessible.
The position will be available on April 2014.
The place of work will be at Synchrotron SOLEIL, which is located in the Paris suburbs (Saint-Aubin).
Applications should include a motivation letter and Curriculum Vitae with the addresses of three references.
Applications should be preferably registered directly on the:
Contact : Human Resources
Célicia Boudaud
Tél: 33 (0)1.69.35.95.08
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