M/F : Postdoctoral Researcher in Computational/Theory High Energy-Density Plasma Physics

Organisation/Company CNRS Department Centre lasers intenses et applications Research Field Physics Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 19 Oct 2026
- 23:59 (UTC) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Jan 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Controlled nuclear fusion, inspired by the fusion processes that power stars, offers the prospect of a clean and virtually inexhaustible energy source on Earth. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) attracted global attention by achieving scientific fusion ignition of a laser-driven capsule with nuclear fuel on December 5, 2022, with a fusion yield of 3.15 MJ from 2.05 MJ of input laser energy (target gain ~1.5). Although this is a critical milestone, target gains >100 are expected to be required to harness Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) for power generation. Magnetized implosions can achieve higher fusion gains than conventional Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) by enhancing alpha particle confinement and suppressing electron thermal conduction losses perpendicular to the magnetic field. Moreover, even in conventional, nominally non magnetized ICF implosions, drive induced asymmetries spontaneously generate magnetic fields that are further amplified during compression and play a critical role in stagnation phase dynamics, directly impacting fusion target performance. On the other hand, fast particle heating could trigger ignition in the compressed fuel independently of the compression phase, potentially enabling higher energy gains than conventional ICF. Finally, magnetic fields can simultaneously improve confinement in the fusion core and guide fast particles toward it, creating a strong synergy between magnetization and fast particle heating [D. Kawahito, M. Bailly-Grandvaux et al., Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 2021].

The selected candidate will lead computational and theoretical studies to support and guide the experimental efforts:

• FLASH 2D/3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, including self-generated magnetic fields and extended MHD effects, carried out onsite and in collaboration with teams at Imperial College London and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
• LPSE (Laser Plasma Simulation Environment) kinetic simulations of laser plasma instabilities, electromagnetic wave propagation, and cross beam energy transfer, particularly in the presence of background magnetic fields, performed in collaboration with the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE, Rochester, USA).
• SMILEI fully-kinetic simulations of (i) laser-driven particle acceleration with structured pulses and targets, and (ii) laser-plasma instabilities and hot-electron generation in the presence of background magnetic fields.
• Hybrid particle-in-cell simulations of hot-electron transport in an ICF target
  - including background magnetic fields
  - will also be considered.

The postdoctoral researcher will work in close synergy with the experimental team, providing theoretical insights and numerical modeling to interpret experimental results and design future experiments. Continuous interactions with PhD students and other postdoctoral researchers in the team are expected.

CELIA is at the forefront of this research, co coordinating international (EUROFusion, NLUF, LBS, NIF Discovery Science, Association Laser Plasma) and French (ANR) projects on laser driven HED plasma studies under strong magnetic fields and fast particle heating of dense plasmas. For example, we are conducting large scale magnetized implosion experiments on OMEGA, NIF and LMJ [C. A. Walsh et al., PPCF 2022; G. Pérez-Callejo et al., PRE 2022; M. Bailly-Grandvaux et al., PRR 2024] and characterizing fast proton heating on OMEGA EP [M. Bailly-Grandvaux et al., Comm. Phys. 2025].

Applicants should hold a PhD in physics (or be close to completion). A strong background in plasma physics and relevant computational experience are highly desirable.