PhD position on atom interferometry

Are you eager to push atom interferometry to new levels in a lively international research group Do you enjoy creating complex machines that have never existed before Do you want to explore physics that nobody else has seen Maybe you want to join our team as a PhD on our journey to continuous cold and ultracold atom interferometry. We are the QG&QI group at the University of Amsterdam and you can read more about the project here.

Join us!

This PhD position is part of the Gen-Q programme and applications must also be submitted through the Gen-Q website. Gen-Q has received funding from the European Unions Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement number .

You will participate in network meetings across Europe where you will learn about quantum technology from experts in the field and train essential skills such as academic writing and outreach. You will participate in a summer school and regular consortium meetings with the other PhDs. You will spend time in the lab of a consortium partner.

This is what you will do

With this project you will join a team of experimental quantum physicists at the University of Amsterdam who are building a new type of atom interferometer. Atom interferometers are quantum sensors that exploit the wave-particle duality of matter to achieve exceptional sensitivity to inertial forces such as acceleration and rotation. Their performance now rivals and in some domains surpasses that of classical systems in gravimetry gradiometry and gyroscopy. However most current implementations are pulsed and sequential limiting their bandwidth robustness and scalability. Achieving continuous operation in a compact format remains a major challengeparticularly for real-world applications where size weight power consumption and long-term stability are critical. This project aims to overcome these limitations by integrating recent advances in laser cooling matter-wave optics and coherent atom sources. It will build on the ongoing development of a continuous atom laser at the University of Amsterdam which provides a steady phase-coherent stream of ultracold atoms ideally suited for continuous interferometry. You will design and construct a compact rotation sensor using a rubidium atomic beam generated by a 2D-MOT achieving mean velocities around 20 m/s and enabling interferometer baselines on the order of 20 cm. The interferometric architecture will be inspired by Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 2046 (1997) but adapted for modern low-SWaP operation including Raman-based beam splitting and large momentum transfer techniques. You will characterize the sensors performancesuch as sensitivity scale factor and stabilitywhile exploring advanced quantum control protocols to enhance atom-optical element fidelity. A key long-term goal will be to integrate a continuous atom laser into the system enabling true continuous-wave operation. This work will contribute to the development of a new class of compact high-performance inertial sensors paving the way toward practical quantum sensing platforms for mobile and embedded applications.

This project is embedded in the QDNL Ultracold Atom Quantum Sensing Testbed which will allow you to learn about many interesting projects related to your PhD such as creating a European optical time and frequency distribution network building an industry prototype of an optical clock building a continuously operating atom laser or improving the way in which optics is built. Our group has furthermore quantum simulation experiments using Rb-Sr mixtures or single Sr atoms in optical tweezer arrays and experiments with ions. Your PhD project will profit from synergy with all these activities.

What we ask of you

• at least 8 months of master project in experimental ultracold atom or trapped ion group;
• good team working skills;
• good English skills;
• experience with at least a few of the following: experimental work with optics lasers electronics experiment control software;
• some experience with data analysis;
• strong letter of recommendation from master project supervisor;
• beneficial skill: programming including some languages of the following list: C C Python Matlab Mathematica. Programming skills will be used to build experiment control systems data analysis systems and to perform numerical simulations of experiments.

This is what we offer you

We offer a temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The gross monthly salary based on 38 hours per week ranges between 3059 to 3881 (Scale P). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 83% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD candidate is applicable. A favourable tax agreement the 30% ruling may apply to non-Dutch applicants.

The preferred starting date is to be discussed and lies preferably between April to September 2026. This employment should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

You will work in this team

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8000 as well as 1800 members of staff working in education research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works be it elementary particles the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute of Physics (IoP)of the Faculty of Science combines the Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute (WZI) the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITFA) and the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEF) and is one of the large research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. TheVan der Waals - Zeeman Institute for Experimental Physics (IoP-WZI)is part of the IoP and home to three research clusters: Quantum Gases & Quantum Information (QG&QI) Quantum Materials (QMat) and Soft Matter (SM).

The Quantum Gases & Quantum Information cluster Is part of the Institute of Physics (IoP) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The main focus of the group is the use of ultracold Sr gases for novel precision measurement techniques and the study of many-body physics.

Want to know more about our organisation Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.

If you feel the profile fits you and you are interested in the job we look forward to receiving your application. This call for applicants is placed by the Gen-Q network.

The application must be submitted through theGen-Q website.

Follow the instructions there and select Grand Challenge B Scaling up complexity in qubits and sensors and topic 27B Compact Rubidium cold beam for testing and sensing: Matter-wave diffraction in 2/3D.

You must submit the same documents also via the apply button. We accept applications until and including 18 March 2026.

A complete application must only consist of:

• Motivation letter:
• CV including;
• Reference letter (cannot be provided by future potential supervisor);
• Ethics self-assessment:
• Masters degree or any equivalent degree that enables to embark on a doctoral programme.

All documents must be submitted as a single PDF file. Please put your family name in the file name. Please note that any extra non-requested documents will be disregarded. For further information regarding the motivation letter see theguide for applicants. There is atemplate for the CVas well as atemplate for the ethics self-assessment. Please see theguidelines for more information on how to fill in the ethics self-assessment document. A knowledge security check can be part of the selection procedure (for details:national knowledge security guidelines).

If you have questions please contact .