Postdoctoral Fellow; PREP

General Description

PREP Research Associate

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas.

Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration. The position available is for postdoctoral research on photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The postdoctoral researcher will work with NIST staff and other associates to develop optimized photonic test structures that will be incorporated in PIC process flows and enable extraction of key physical parameters associated with PIC performance, including absorption and scattering loss and refractive index dispersion.

Test structures will be optimized for usage in PICs based on the silicon-in-insulator, silicon nitride, and thin film lithium niobate platforms.

• Perform a literature review to assess existing test structure designs and methodologies for PIC parameter extraction
• Set up electromagnetic simulation models of existing test structure geometries to enable simulation and optimization for specific PIC platforms
• Investigate methods to optimize test structure designs for more robust determination of photonic parameters
• Produce layouts and work with team members on fabrication and measurement of optimized test structure designs
• Presenting results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders such as at photonics conferences or through peer-reviewed journal publications
• Ensuring that results, protocols, software, and documentation have been archived or otherwise transmitted to the larger organization

• A PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field
• >3 years experience with Lumerical and Comsol electromagnetic simulation tools
• Experience with device design and layout for photonics foundries
• >2 years experience with photonic device characterization including linear spectroscopy
• Familiarity with multiple scripting languages such as Matlab, C, and Python
• Strong oral and written communication skills

• CV/Resume
• 2 professional references

* Please limit C.V to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. Please DO NOT include telephone numbers, home address or photos on your resume.

15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program.

NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates.

Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated.

To apply for this position, visit:

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.

Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)./