The Max Planck Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH offers a PhD position in full time for three years within its International Max Planck Research School for Interface Controlled Materials for Energy Conversion.

The purpose of this PhD project is to develop a predictive theory of field ion microscopy (FIM) contrast, in order to help in the interpretation of experiments shared by our collaborators at Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE), and to contribute improved imaging strategies to resolve the interplay of defects and solutes in modern materials.
The candidate will carry out density-functional theory (DFT) calculations on charged surface models, using the SPHInX code developed at MPIE. Preliminary workflows for computing FIM intensities and field evaporation barriers are available, but should be refined and extended to more involved cases.
After establishing a computational scheme that relates atomic configurations to the observable FIM signal and evaporation mechanisms, the PhD student should also work on the reverse connection from experimental signal back to atomic configuration, to help finding key configurations. This may include machine learning approaches on simulated image databases, or theory-guided reconstruction.

The successful candidate will work in the group of Dr. Christoph Freysoldt, and, in parallel, be a graduate student of the IMPRS-SurMat.

For more details and application procedure, see the full announcement on our application portal https://recruitingapp-5424.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/347/Description/2