Jobs at ORC
We facilitate under-graduate and post-graduate studies for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees and also offer jobs for post-doctoral researchers. Students and researchers may apply for the jobs at ORC at any time of the year. The applications should include Curriculum Vitae and related testimonials.
Please contact Director Pekka Savolainen or the professors responsible for your area of expertise. See our personnel list and the research pages for details.
Working at ORC
As an example of what working at ORC entails, take a look at the picture above. A researcher is tuning a high-power yellow laser (VECSEL) he built himself for guide-star applications in large telescopes. Getting up to this point has required:
- Applying for project funding (Academy of Finland, Tekes, EU...)
- Developing a process for fabricating high-quality quantum wells that emit infrared light
- Designing a laser gain mirror for amplifying light
- Fabricating the gain mirror using molecular beam epitaxy
- Characterizing the quality of the gain mirror (e.g. X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, reflectance, and surface measurements)
- Processing the gain mirror using a diamond heatspreader to maximize cooling
- Building the laser that converts infrared light to yellow (intra-cavity frequency doubling)
- Measuring the optical properties of the laser
After this, the results were presented in international conferences which means traveling to nice places and meeting like-minded people. Finally, the results were published in a scientific journal article.
The wide range of required expertise from theory to lab work means that science is a team effort. There is always something new to learn!