The Swiss Plasma Center seeks PhD students throughout the year and encourages candidates to apply at any time. PhD projects are discussed with the prospective thesis supervisor at SPC during the application phase, and can be tuned to the candidate’s interest. A non-exhaustive list of possible projects can be found below.
If you need more information on any proposal, send an e-mail to the corresponding contact person.
If you want to apply, please follow the procedure indicated on this page.
Thank you.
Experimental physics on the TCV tokamak
Experimental physics in the Basic Physics Plasma group
Experimental physics at the BioPlasmas Lab
Open positions in experimental physics on the TCV tokamak
Open positions in experimental physics in the Basic Plasma Physics group
Plasma Physics Theory
Simulation of the plasma dynamics at the tokamak edge
Contact person: Prof P. Ricci
The understanding turbulence in the edge of magnetic confinement device is an outstanding open issue in magnetic fusion. The physics of this region determines the boundary conditions of the whole plasma by controlling the plasma refueling, heat losses, and impurity dynamics. Edge dynamics regulates the heat load on the tokamak vessel; this is considered among the most crucial open problems for ITER and future fusion reactors. Since a few years, a project has been initiated at the SPC with the goal of improving the understanding of edge physics. This effort has significantly advanced our grasp of plasma turbulence in the edge of a relatively simple configuration, the circular limited tokamak, and we are now exploring the physics of diverted configurations. Ph.D. theses are proposed with the goal of advancing the simulation and the understanding of edge turbulence in reactor relevant conditions, in particular to consider improved plasma models and advanced exhaust configurations.
Open positions in experimental physics at the BioPlasmas Lab
A virtual tour of the BioPlasmas Lab can be found here:
https://www.epfl.ch/research/domains/swiss-plasma-center/virtual-tours/
The interest in Cold Atmospheric Plasmas (CAPs) is constantly growing for a wide number of applications, from medical treatments, to sterilization of bacteria, viruses, as well as fungii (plasma-agriculture). The high-energy electron population obtained with CAP results in a complex chemistry featuring a variety of Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (RONS), which have a key role in affecting the biological sample, but keeping a low ambient temperature during the process, thanks to the low energy of ions and atmospheric gas molecules.
At the BioPlamas Lab of the SPC, this interdisciplinary topic where physics, chemistry, and biology are strongly connected is explored on several projects, with a two-fold challenge: on the one hand, CAPs are developed for industrial applications to have a short-medium term impact on the society, on the other hand, the mechanism underlying the biological effects of CAPs is investigated to increase the current understanding of CAP applications, as well as to fine tune the target process.