call for a Ph.D student, Scientific Area: Materials Science and Engineering - #241096

Reference: BI 16.CPM.2024.IDMEC

The Institute of Mechanical Engineering – IDMEC is opening a call for

a Ph.D student

Applications are open for one Ph.D student, within the framework of project LAETA, UIDB/50022/2020, financed by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) with the financial support of FCT/MCTES through national funds, under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Materials Science and Engineering

Admission Requirements:

1. Be enrolled at a PhD program in materials or declaration of honor in which undertakes be enrolled until the grant's contract is done.
2. Research Experience in Electron Microscopy and in 2D Materials

Workplan and the objectives to achieve:

The enormous potential demonstrated by the field of twistronics has motivated a rush to find 2D materials that display twist angle-dependent electronic properties. In this context, the goal of this project is to combine fabrication methods capable of producing 2D monolayer and twisted bilayer structures; with advanced computer simulations and STEM; to determine their crystal structure, electronic band structure, atomic electric fields, charge distribution and conductivity. The proposed investigation will be based on two particular systems, namely MoS2 and MoSe2. Given the significant properties demonstrated by these systems, the objectives are:

1. To build microscopic and periodic atomistic models of the monolayers (with point defects) and twisted bilayers.
2. To simulate STEM images to compare with experimental images
3. To employ aberration-corrected high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF)-STEM and DPC-STEM to characterize their structure, composition, electronic features and local conductivity, at the atomic scale.

Legislation and Regulations: Statute of Scientific Research Fellow, approved by Law nr. 40/2004, of August 18, as worded by Decree-Law nr. 123/2019, of August 28; FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships, available on https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento.phtml.pt

Workplace: The work will be developed at IDMEC - Institute of Mechanical Engineering, being both the Host and Contracting Entity under the scientific supervision of Paulo Ferreira. Some of the experiments will be also performed at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory.

Duration: The research fellowship(s) will have the duration of 4 months. It’s expected to begin in June 1 and will not be renewed.

Monthly maintenance allowance: According to the values for Research Fellowships awarded by FCT in Portugal (http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores), the amount of the monthly maintenance allowance is 1259,64 Euros being the payment method by Wire Transfer.

Selection methods: The selection methods will be the following:

1. Curriculum evaluation (40%)
2. Research Experience in Electron Microscopy (30%)
3. Research Experience in 2D Materials (30%)

Composition of the selection Jury:

Paulo Ferreira (President), Fatima Vaz, Virginia Infante

Announcement/ notification of the results: The final evaluation results will communicated to all applicants by email.

After be notified, candidates have 10 working days to submit a formal rebuttal, by email.

Application deadline and formalization: The call is open in the period between May 06 and May 17 until 18:00, 2024.

Research Studentships

It is mandatory to formalize applications with the submission of the following documents: Curriculum Vitae;academic degree certificate, where applicable; proof of enrollment at an academic degree course (PhD); motivation letter;

Applications submitted to the email: **************@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

The contract draft and final report draft are available on https://www.idmec.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/about/job-openings/