TWO OPEN PhD POSITIONS AT NOISELAB - Physics Department Politecnico di Torino Italy

December 18, 2007

TWO OPEN PhD POSITIONS AT NOISELAB - Physics Department Politecnico di Torino Italy

We have two open PhD positions at the NOISELAB - Physics Department of the Politecnico di Torino, Italy.
The positions are available for a period of 3 years, starting in January 2008.

Deadline for applications will be on 26 September 2007.

To apply please read carefully all the information posted at the http://didattica.polito.it/scudo/bandi.html

To apply for a Doctorate Course:
1) Read Carefully the Call for 23rd cycle; In the Call you find alla information about procedures, places, scholarships;
2) Check the requirements;
3) Fill in the application form that you will find down at http://didattica.polito.it/scudo/bandi.html.

If you are in possession (or you are going to obtain by 31 December 2007) of a Master of Science in a foreign university, you will be asked to attach the following documentation:

A certificate attesting your Master of Science and the relative final score;
A certified transcript of studies with full list of the marks obtained;
The program of each examination passed (Syllabus): a document that explains the main topics of each examination passed.

PROJECT
Out-of-equilibrium fluctuations in disordered materials

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Materials in which the electrons are strongly correlated diplay a broad range of interesting phenomena, including high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC), colossal magnetoresistance (CMR), metal-insulator transition and space-charge limited current (SCLC). A common denominator of these materials is the existence of several competing states, as exemplified by the complicated phase diagrams. Experimental and theoretical studies have indeed revealed the existence of inhomogeneous structures interacting at different length and time scales, implying that their investigations must be considered in the broader context of complexity. Complex systems spontaneously tend to form structures –to self-organize- with a broad range of size and scales. Complexity, in this specific field, should be intended as the simultaneously existence of a multiplicity of nearly degenerate conformations of the relevant electronic properties that can be easily modified by external perturbations. Therefore such systems exhibit almost regular behaviour, but can change dramatically and stochastically in time and/or space as a result of small changes in the driving parameters, thus the importance of the investigation of near- and out-of equilibrium fluctuations.
The research is addressed to the study of disordered materials through the study of out-of-equilibrium fluctuations. The electrical noise produced in out-of-equilibrium conditions by electric, magnetic or radiation fields applied to disordered solids in a critical state (e.g., near a metal-insulator, a superconducting or a magnetic transition), gives important information about the mechanisms ruling the transition process itself. Moreover, self-organised structures have emerged as a major challenge of nanotechnology during the past decade, besides disordered materials naturally showing the correlation effects mentioned above. To describe such systems, in addition to the average evolution of the physical parameters ruling the process (electrical conductance, magnetization, etc..), one needs to take into account their fluctuations. Generally, during the variation of an external field, the complex system spans a series of configurations that correspond to the local minima of the system free-energy and come along with strong fluctuations of several physical parameters associated to the process. This richness of different meta-stable configurations, which are visited during field variations, is strictly related to correlation effects arising from the interaction among the constitutive elements of the system. The fluctuations of microscopic electric and magnetic field distribution driven by local charging–discharging elementary events, are thus interdependent being the results of highly space-time correlated processes. The correlations phenomena are ultimately responsible for the avalanche phenomena causing fluctuation spectra with slope higher than the equilibrium noise, generally of the 1/f type. The coexistence of many correlated strongly non-linear processes, in particular the correlation between the emergent spatial structure and charge transport, makes the understanding of the physics of the disordered electronic systems a very complicated and intriguing task with important consequences for the basic and the applied sciences as well. The disordered systems are represented by dimensional network of strongly interacting nonlinear resistive patches undergoing a transition at critical values of the driving parameter (e.g metal-insulator transition, Josephson junction-like modelling the weak-link behaviour). During the smooth variation of the distribution of the critical parameter (current, magnetic field), abrupt re-adjustments of the network to new equilibrium quasi-equilibrium configuration occur.
In our laboratory (NOISELAB url: http://www.polito.it/noiselab ), studies specifically addressed to disordered systems such as organic and inorganic semiconductors, high-temperature superconductors and self-assembled quantum dots have been carried out. In this framework, the prospective PhD student will have the opportunity to investigate both experimentally and theoretically some general aspects common to the fluctuations observed in such systems. The PhD student will also have the opportunity to use and develop numerical algorithms to model the fluctuations in 1-, 2- and 3-dimensional complex systems. This task, along with the pure scientific interest of testing the validity of existing models and developing refined one, allows to gather practical information for the development of electronic, magnetic and optical devices. Finally, it is worthy of note that the PhD student will collaborate at the noise experiments carried out at the NOISELAB ( http://www.polito.it/noiselab ) and will additionally have the opportunity to enter in contact with the research groups at the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM www.inrim.it Torino), besides to Universities and Research Centres, in Italy and abroad, collaborating on the above topics with our group.

http://www2.polito.it/ricerca/noiselab/PHDpositions.htm

Tags: Italy, OPEN PhD POSITIONS, Physics, Torino

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