Laser Plasma Interaction Computational Physicist

Responsibilities

• Deploy, configure, and extend existing simulation tools such as WarpX and LPSE to model laser plasma interaction phenomena relevant to Xcimer’s laser architecture.
• Develop workflows, simulation setups, post-processing pipelines, and benchmarking methodologies for efficient and repeatable simulation execution.
• Lead the design and development of in-house LPI simulation software focused on collisional kinetics and paraxial laser propagation models.
• Architect simulation software using modular, extensible, and maintainable scientific software frameworks with strong emphasis on composability and long-term scalability.
• Implement and validate core physics models including collisional plasma kinetics, paraxial laser propagation, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), filamentation, and cross-beam energy transfer (CBET).
• Perform verification, convergence studies, and benchmarking against existing tools, published results, and experimental data to ensure numerical robustness and model credibility.
• Optimize simulation software for high-performance computing environments, including parallelization and scalability across modern compute architectures.
• Maintain rigorous software engineering practices including version control, automated testing infrastructure, documentation, and reproducibility standards.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with laser architecture, gas optics, radiation hydrodynamics, experimental physics, and other engineering teams to prioritize simulation efforts and integrate modeling outputs into broader system development activities.
• Contribute to Xcimer’s long-term computational modeling strategy by identifying opportunities to integrate new physics capabilities and couple simulation domains through shared modular architectures.

Qualifications

• Education: PhD in Computational Physics, Plasma Physics, Applied Physics, or a closely related technical field.
• Strong software development skills in scientific computing using modern C++ and Python.
• Experience developing physics simulation codes with emphasis on modular software architecture, maintainability, and software quality.
• Strong understanding of laser plasma interaction physics, collisional plasma kinetics, and laser propagation models.
• Familiarity with numerical methods for partial differential equations, kinetic plasma simulations, and/or paraxial wave equations.
• Experience using, extending, or validating community simulation tools such as particle-in-cell (PIC) or fluid plasma codes.
• Experience working independently and leading technically complex software development efforts.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Desired

• Experience with WarpX, LPSE, pF3D, or similar laser plasma interaction simulation tools.
• Experience with high-performance computing, including MPI/OpenMP parallelization and/or GPU acceleration.
• Familiarity with modern scientific software architectures including plugin systems, composable frameworks, or modular physics engines.
• Experience within inertial confinement fusion (ICF), high-energy-density physics, or advanced plasma modeling environments.
• Demonstrated experience building extensible scientific software platforms that support long-term collaboration and multi-user development.