We have several postdoctoral and graduate student positions available in the group. The postdoctoral positions are for a full-time two-year appointment expected start date of March 2023 or mutually agreed upon date, with the possibility for renewal for a third year. Graduate students should refer to the admissions website at UCLA. We are recruiting in the following areas:

1. Quantum Information Science:
   1. Design of Error-Corrected Solid-State Quantum Repeaters: This work will overcome key problems in solid-state quantum technologies for quantum networks: it will develop theoretical methods to model and predict the properties of quantum defects quantitatively; protocols to characterize complex and coherently coupled solid-state quantum systems, and it will deploy them in practical quantum repeater nodes. The tight discovery loop availed by the approach in this work will allow, for instance, to generate a local array of emitters in a material, predict local and long-range properties such as inter-emitter coherence lifetimes, and engineer directly the structure-function relationships that govern specific quantum behaviors needed to enable scalable integration of quantum emitters. This integration is critical for solid-state quantum technologies as additional qubits in quantum repeaters will be needed for error correction, entanglement distillation, and quantum repeater multiplexing. Ideal candidates will have interests in quantum devices, including dynamics of open quantum systems, noise models, or quantum algorithm development. A Ph.D in electrical engineering, applied physics, materials science, physics, or similar is expected by the start date.
   2. Quantum Network Science: Connecting nodes of a communication network with quantum states would fundamentally change the way we communicate, process information, and sense the world around us. Realizing such connections over long distances has been hampered by the lack of quantum interconnects that can transfer, store, and manipulate delicate quantum states. This project seeks to create and implement optimized routing, entanglement, and measurement protocols for the demonstrated repeater in a quantum internet, incorporating realistic device performance such as gate errors, channel loss, and memory lifetimes. Successful candidates will have a background in quantum engineering, including the theory of quantum algorithms, computation and sensing, and experience with quantum devices.

1. Transport and Hydrodynamics: Transport phenomena, the irreversible processes driving physical systems towards equilibrium, underpin much of the complexity of the natural world. Microscopically, the transfer of charge and heat in devices is governed by the flow of electrons and phonons in spatially-inhomogeneous materials. Our primary objective is to harness a fundamental understanding of electron and phonon transport to design and optimize new device architectures. Of particular interest are the recently-reinvigorated fields of electron- and phonon-hydrodynamics, where these calculations hold promise in designing dissipation-less devices for power electronics and energy-efficiency applications. These projects will synthesize state-of-the-art ideas and tools in condensed matter and computational physics, including our open-source spatially-resolved transport framework, to predict hydrodynamic flows in candidate materials and various device geometries, and across interfaces of heterogeneous materials. Additionally, while topological effects in the scattering operator have recently been explored, the implications of Berry curvature, phase-volume correction terms, etc as they enter in the streaming operator as additional force terms remain largely unexplored. Including these anomalous contributions in our in-house transport code is another area of interest.
2. Topological Quantum Matter: Topological materials science has grown as a field of research within the last decade and it was recently discovered that more than a quarter of all materials have topological features. Materials are known to be topological when their electronic band structures show mathematical properties that can be linked to quantized electronic responses. In a wide range of chemical compounds, the low-energy behavior is readily explained by topological field theories that provide a high-level approach and a transparent way to understand many exotic material properties. Within this past decade, a number of material systems have been theoretically identified and experimentally verified to exhibit topological properties. Of particular interest are magnetic Weyl semimetals and more exotic axionic systems, which show a phase transition and a collective mode for temperature and pressures that modify the topological properties dynamically. Candidates will uncover unique electronic, optoelectronic and transport properties of these materials. Experiences with programming languages and scientific high-performance computing is preferred.
3. Driven Quantum Materials: Materials driven out of equilibrium open new pathways for discovering and controlling quantum materials with unconventional properties. These non-thermal states can be engineered by intense light or electromagnetic radiation, and our current projects aim to theoretically understand and utilize the many-body interactions of quasiparticles typically excited far from equilibrium and at ultrafast timescales. Successful candidates will predict new classes of driven materials, incorporating ideas from chemistry and physics to predict new signatures of nonequilibrium physics in quantum materials. An interest in ultrafast dynamics would be ideal. A Ph.D in materials science, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, applied physics, or similar is expected by the start date.
4. Defects in Quantum Materials: Low-dimensional quantum materials can be crafted with structural precision approaching the atomic scale, enabling quantum defects-by-design. These defects are frequently described as artificial atoms and are emerging optically-addressable spin qubits. To harness the electronic and optical properties of these defects, defects can be coupled to external fields, including electric, magnetic, and strain, as well as to waveguides and cavity environments. The ideal candidate will have a background in physics, applied physics, chemistry or materials science and an interest in finding structure-property relationships in novel low-dimensional quantum materials guiding both synthesis and characterization.

For more information about these projects please refer to the research page, and recent publications. The best way to reach PI Narang is through email: prineha@ucla.edu. For postdoctoral openings a Ph.D. in chemistry, chemical physics, physics, applied physics, computer science, electrical engineering or similar areas is expected by the start date. Please email PI Narang with a detailed CV, with a list of publications and a statement of research interests. In addition, applicants should be prepared to obtain 3 confidential letters of recommendation upon request. Review of applications will begin immediately and applications will continue to be accepted and evaluated until the position is filled.