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

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">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 st