Uncertainty Quantification in Low Temperature Plasmas
Develop computational methods to understand how charged particle beams interact with low temperature plasmas, focusing on uncertainty in scattering data.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
NRC Research Associateship Programs has archived this opportunity.
Funder: NRC Research Associateship Programs
Due Dates: May 1, 2025
Funding Amounts: $99,200 stipend plus $3,000 travel allowance; relocation assistance and health insurance available. Duration typically 2-3 years.
Summary: Supports postdoctoral research to develop theories and computational methods for understanding interactions of intense charged particle beams with low temperature plasmas, emphasizing uncertainty quantification in electron scattering data.
Key Information: Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents; requires Ph.D. earned within 5 years; research conducted on-site at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.
Description
This fellowship opportunity under the NRC Research Associateship Programs focuses on advancing the theoretical and computational understanding of low temperature plasmas driven by intense, short pulse charged particle beams. The research aims to describe fundamental parameters and processes such as collisional excitation, ionization, dissociation, recombination, and de-excitation involving molecules, atoms, ions, and plasmas.
Key goals include:
- Characterizing the transition of plasmas from weakly-ionized molecular states to strongly-ionized atomic states under charged particle beam influence.
- Determining scattering cross sections for step-wise ionization and dissociation processes.
- Predicting production rates of characteristic line radiation from air species.
- Evaluating electron scattering cross section data with a focus on uncertainty quantification, including covariance analysis.
The research is conducted at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC, within the Plasma Physics division. This program is ideal for postdoctoral researchers interested in atomic physics, plasma physics, charged particle beams, and computational modeling with an emphasis on uncertainty quantification.
