NASA Postdoctoral Program - Far-Infrared Detectors for Space-Based Low-Background Astronomy

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific research opportunity focuses on the development of ultra-low noise detectors for the next generation of space-based far-infrared astronomical telescopes. The project addresses detector technology development for background-limited observations with cooled optics, requiring detector arrays with tens of thousands of pixels spanning the 20-600 µm waveband. The successful candidate will contribute to a multi-disciplinary research effort encompassing astronomical focal plane instrumentation development, frequency selective electromagnetic coupling structures (photonics), superconducting detectors, and phonon transport at low temperatures. The research includes work on absorber-coupled transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers and Near-IR Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) for ultra-low-background observations of exoplanet atmospheres. The position is located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, under the advisorship of Dr. Karwan Rostem in the field of Astrophysics.