Science

The Stress analyzer SALSA uses neutrons to determine stress-fields within engineering components with sub-millimetre resolution. The samples can be made of metals or ceramics can have dimensions from millimetres to metres and complex shapes. Precise orientation and positioning of the very diversive samples is vital for neutron measurements. A machine vision system consisting of 4 cameras and a National-Instruments (NI) interface is installed on the instrument. NI provides a library of functions that shall be embedded into a user friendly interface and extended by specific functionalities required by the applications of the SALSA instrument.

Activities of the trainee

Embedding the functions provided by the National-Instruments library into a user interface requires windows programming and advanced experience in C++ programming.

Level required

4 year university studies in programming

Language skill

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Thilo Pirling, email : pirling@ill.eu

Since the past several years, we have been actively working towards building biomimetic membrane model systems composed of deuterated phospholipid mixtures extracted and purified from yeast and bacterial cellular biomass. Fatty acyl compositional analysis in yeast lipid extracts revealed that deuteration induced a change in fatty acid metabolism mainly causing a significant increase in the oleic acid content with a corresponding decrease in the stearic acid content. In addition, significant decreases in the linoleic and alpha-linolenic acid content was also noticed. In contrast, E. coli when adapted to deuteration triggered a major decrease in the oleic acid fatty acid content along with a significant decrease in the cyclic fatty acid content as well specifically cyclo-19:0. Fatty acid synthesis is carried out by the enzyme ‘fatty acid synthase’ (FAS) and downstream through a series of reactions catalyzed by elongases and desaturases. We hypothesize that deuteration-induced changes in fatty acid profiles mainly result from changes in gene expression levels especially those that are involved in fatty acid metabolism. In this project, we intend to employ reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) that would enable for the measurement of RNA levels through the use of cDNA in a qPCR reaction, thus allowing rapid detection of gene expression changes in E. coli and Pichia pastoris. The project involves extraction of total mRNA that is then transcribed into complementary DNA (cDNA). The cDNA preparation is then used as the template for the PCR reaction.

Activities of the trainee

1] Grow bacteria and yeast cell cultures

2] Total RNA extraction and its conversion to cDNA

3] Agarose gel preparation

4] Carrying out RT-PCR for gene expression analysis

5] Data analysis

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 4months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Krishna Chaithanya BATCHU, email : batchu@ill.fr

The project focusses on extracting and purifying hydrogenous and deuterated branched phospholipid (polar) mixtures from the gram positive bacteria “Bacillus subtilis”. Such mixtures will be employed to produce biologically relevant models of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane after their extraction from a B. subtilis culture grown in an 85% D2O medium supplemented with D8-glycerol as a carbon source. Semi-preparative scale polar lipid mixtures will be purified by employing a normal phase column coupled to an HPLC. Molecular compositional analysis of the mixtures will be carried out by Gas-Chromatography. Such mixtures will be utilized to prepare monolayers at the air-water interface and will be thoroughly characterized through employing a Langmuir trough (Kibron). Measurements pertaining to the surface pressure (Π)-area per molecule (A) isotherms will be attained and in addition real-time visualization of the Langmuir monolayers will be recorded by utilizing Brewster Angle Microscope (BAM). This allows for investigation of the lateral organization of the membrane composed of such biological polar mixtures. It also allows for studying their phase separation and formation of domains if any, all of which depends on the properties of the monolayers. The study will also utilize interfacial rheometry in order to study the mechanical properties of the lipid mixtures. All such characterization studies of such membrane models composed of deuterated polar mixtures can prove to be very valuable and important in finding a relationship between the plethora of structural studies existing on model membrane systems and the function of live bacterial membranes. This proposal is being submitted in collaboration with the L-Lab at ILL.

Activities of the trainee

1] Extraction and purification of the polar lipid mixtures.

2] Preparation of monolayers

3] Characterization of the monolayers by BAM and Rheometry

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics, chemistry or Biology

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Pablo Sanchez Puga, email : sanchez-puga@ill.fr

The ILL PSCM recently had an interfacial rheology system based on a Double-Wall Ring (3D printed in titanium) coupled to the Anton Paar 702e Space MultiDrive rotational rheometer.

Two main challenges are proposed: i) Firstly, to study in detail the operating windows of the instrument under oscillatory mode. Considering the signal to noise ratio, the contribution of the bulk phases and other experimental difficulties (positioning in the interface, eccentricity or variations in the lines of contact). Direct Fourier Transform will be used to analyze the noise floor and the drift of the main observable signals as well as obtain amplitude and phase for the dominant frequency. The performance of a Flow-Field Based Data Analysis for a suitable subphase correction will be studied. This will allow a high resolution of the instrument, of the order of 10-7 N/m and a proper separation of viscous and elastic moduli (Gs’ and Gs’’). ii) Secondly, a study of the mechanical properties of Langmuir monolayers of fatty acids during the process by which the molecules escape from the interface plane (giving rise to thicker structures such as multilayer islands) which will be responsible for an increase significant of the dynamic shear moduli. Other complementary optical techniques available in the PSCM for the study of fluid interfaces, such as BAM or ellipsometry, could be used.

Activities of the trainee

1] Programming and development of analysis codes in Python, MATLAB or LabVIEW.

2] Preparation of monolayers.

3] Characterization of the mechanical properties of monolayers.

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics, engineering or chemistry

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Pablo Sanchez Puga, email : sanchez-puga@ill.fr

The aim of this internship is to significantly improve the current capabilities of the Acoustic Levitator using skills in electronic engineering and Arduino programming. More specifically, this internship will focus on improving droplet stabilisation under a cryogenic flow of cold nitrogen, implementing more precise temperature control and exploring a new automatic injection system for our Acoustic Levitator. A detailed description of the device can be found at A detailed description of the device can be found at www.instructables.com/Acoustic-Levitator

The acoustic levitator, an innovative and captivating device, is capable of suspending liquid droplets in the air using ultrasonic waves. By merging skills in electronic engineering and Arduino programming, this research project aims to transform the acoustic levitator into an even more powerful tool for Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) experiments.

Activities of the trainee

Project objectives:

• Optimise methods to improve droplet stabilisation under a cryogenic flow of cold nitrogen, which will allow samples to be studied at lower temperatures and under controlled environmental conditions.
• To develop and implement a more reliable temperature control system for the acoustic levitator, allowing precise control of the sample temperature during experiments.
• Design and test a new automatic injection system for the acoustic levitator, providing a user-friendly and reliable method of introducing samples into the levitation chamber.

The student will have the opportunity to participate in real SANS experiments at ILL to test the levitator online and publish the results of his/her research in scientific journals, thus contributing to the scientific community.

Level required

3/4/5 year university studies in Electronics Engineering preference or similar, physics with electronics skills

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Viviana Cristiglio, email : cristiglio@ill.fr

Shear is a widespread phenomenon observed in both nature and technology, and can significantly alter the structure, function and performance of biological and artificial systems. An illustrative example of its significance is the reduction of friction through the application of lubricants and surface coatings, critical to reduce energy consumption and increase the lifetime of almost any machine with moving parts. To understand, control and utilize the effects of shear, it becomes necessary to analyze its impact on the structure and function of the sheared interfaces on a molecular scale. For this purpose, a project to combine neutron reflectometry (NR) and infrared spectroscopy to follow shear-induced interfacial processes with time resolution down to about 10 ms has recently started at ILL.

The student assigned to this project will be in charge of preparing semi-dilute polystyrene (PS) solutions in the good solvent tetrachloroethylene. Subsequently, the student will conduct rheological measurements using the Anton Paar 702e Space MultiDrive rheometer. An array of PS concentrations will be systematically studied to elucidate their viscoelastic properties by measuring the storage G’ (ω) and loss G’’(ω) moduli against the angular frequency ω of the applied shear rate and determine the longest relaxation time. Besides, measurements of the viscosity as a function of the shear rate will be performed to simulate the NR experiments. This preliminary assessment will allow to check the operating windows of the cone-plate geometry before performing the real NR experiments.

Activities of the trainee

(1) Preparation of semi-dilute PS solutions in tetrachloroethylene at different concentrations.

(2) Characterization of the longest relaxation time and the operating windows of the cone-plate geometry using the Anton Paar 702e Space MultiDrive rheometer available in the PSCM.

(3) Analysis and interpretation of the results obtained to identify the optimal PS concentration for the NR experiments.

Level required

4 or 5 year university studies in Physical Chemistry

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Javier Carrascosa, email : carrascosa-tejedor@ill.fr

qBounce is an experiment that studies the coupling between the neutrons and the Earth's gravitational field using Ramsey spectroscopy methods.

In order to do that, it is crucial to know precisely the velocity spectrum of the incoming neutrons in the experiment. The selection of the speeds of these neutrons is made by the selection of their trajectories.

qBounce will have an automatized aperture composed of 2 blades that perform this selection.

The main goal of this internship is to develop the Labview code that will be used to control the automatized aperture and participate in the data taking and the analysis related to the velocity spectrum during the reactor cycles.

Activities of the trainee

Help work on the qBounce experiment (level D) and develop code under Labview and possibly Mathematica/Geant4.

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Particle physics

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Tobias JENKE, email : jenke@ill.fr

The PanEDM experiment aims to measure the electric Dipole Moment of the neutron in profiting from ILL's new source of Ultra Cold Neutrons SuperSUN. The experiment will be a very sensitive test of Parity and Time reversal invariance, addressing directly questions about the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. While SuperSUN started it's operation in 2023 it is now time to test and validate UCN optical components allowing to polarize and transfer neutrons from the source into the precession chamber of the PanEDM experiment and carry out polarization sensitive detection. The spectrum of neutrons from SuperSUN is very soft (average speed in the range of m/s = "pedestrian neutrons"), which promises to have extremely sensitive experiments. At the same time this requires to validate all components involved in the experiment with respect to their performance using neutrons at this spectrum. It is foreseen to carry out a number of validation measurements using ILL's UCN sources SuperSUN, SUN2 and PF2 and to work towards an assembly of the experiment. All work will be done in close collaboration with ILL's UCN scientist and the international PanEDM collaboration consisting from scientists from TU Munich, University of Heidelberg and University of Illinois. The student will participate in the preparation and realization of the experiments and will also be involved in the online data analysis and interpretation. He will collaborate closely with scientists and students who focus on Computer simulation of the experiment working towards an improvement of understanding of experiment and simulation and the underlying physical phenomena.

Activities of the trainee

The student will participate in the preparation and realization of UCN experiments to validate components for the PanEDM experiment. She/He will also be involved in the online data analysis and interpretation. She/He will collaborate closely with scientists and students who focus on Computer simulation of the experiment working towards an improvement of understanding of experiment and simulation and the underlying physical phenomena. She/He will work together with PanEDM collaboration allowing to get a deep understanding of this Flagg ship experiment of low energy particle physics

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Michael Jentschel, email : jentsch@ill.fr

Fission is the mechanism that can be used to populate nuclei far from stability and study their structure. By detecting gamma rays from excited fission fragments and analyzing multiple gamma-ray coincidences, nuclear level scheme can be reconstructed. Different campaigns took place in recent years at ILL, using n-induced fission and different experimental setups at the FIPPS instrument. The analysis of those data is of importance both for nuclear structure and for the instrument performance evaluation.

Activities of the trainee

The internship student will evaluate the performance of FIPPS in different fission campaigns. He/She will analyze multiple gamma-ray coincidence data for reconstructing level schemes in neutron-rich nuclei.

Level required

5 year university studies in Physics

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Caterina Michelagnoli, email : michelagnolic@ill.fr

The PGAA (Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis) technique is nowadays in use to determine materials compositions using the neutrons provided by a reactor. The setup usually comprises one Ge detector with much effort put on shielding, in order to reach high detection limits (i.e. investigating the weakest channels possible). Recently, a test has been performed to check the capabilities of multiple gamma-ray coincidences at the efficient multi-detector array FIPPS at ILL. This study is done in collaboration with the Budapest and Munich research groups. The available data show the interest of such technique and an additional experiment is going to be proposed to further investigate such new approach.

Activities of the trainee

The trainee will analyze the existing data in detail in order to evaluate the performance of the setup, also with the help of Montecarlo simulations. Depending on the reactor schedule, he/she also will participate to the recording of new data and their evaluation.

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 3months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Caterina Michelagnoli, email : michelagnolic@ill.fr

Fission experiments are powerful tools to populate nuclei far from stability, allowing for studying proton-neutron interaction in the atomic nucleus as well as stellar phenomena. The FIPPS instrument at ILL consists of a pencil-like thermal neutron beam and a multi-array of HPGe detectors. The gamma rays emitted by excited fission products can be studied via multiple gamma-ray coincidences. In order to gain in inspection power and look to more exotic species, a fission-fragment selection setup is under development. This is based on the diamond detector technology.

Activities of the trainee

The trainee will run Montecarlo simulations in order to optimize the setup for such a device. He/She will analyze existing data taken at the Lohengrin spectrometer at ILL, as well as wih the FIPPS instrument, for the test of diamond detectors. He/She will participate to fission experiments at FIPPS (depending on reactor schedule).

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 3months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor:

Caterina Michelagnoli, email : michelagnolic@ill.fr

Proteins can denature when submitted to extreme conditions as high or low temperature or pressure. Denaturation by heat was studied in detail. Often it leads to aggregation and thus to irreversibility of the process. Much less is known about the cold denaturation, which seems to be largely reversible and must rely on different mechanisms. High hydrostatic pressure can shift the transition temperatures and have additional protective or destabilizing effects.

In the past two years, we started a project to shed light on the mechanisms behind the cold denaturation of proteins, mainly by using calorimetry. Recently, we bought a high pressure equipment for DSC, which should be used now to complete our experimental data. Moreover, FT-IR, densitometry and neutron scattering can be used to better understand the structure and dynamics of proteins under cold denaturation conditions and to develop a new theoretical model to describe the transition. These effects have also to be related to the functionality of the biological systems. Our findings can provide important input for biotechnology or medical applications.

Activities of the trainee

The trainee will first learn sample preparation and then be in charge of a series of experiments, e.g. measurements by calorimetry (DSC), densitometry, FT-IR and eventually neutron scattering. He/she will analyse the data. In collaboration with the theoretician D. Bicout (ILL) we try to establish a new model describing proteins under denaturing conditions.

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics, chemistry or biophysics

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 6months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor: Judith Peters, email : peters@ill.fr

Climate change is one of the most important societal issues and it is crucial to reach decarbonization of energy production as quickly as possible. An important green energy carrier is hydrogen: Hydrogen gas is produced from water when energy is available and reconverted when energy is required. However, the production of hydrogen gas from water requires a catalyst, in most cases platinum, which is expensive and too scarce to provide sufficent catalyst for a hydrogen based economy. A possible replacement of platinum could be molybdenum disulphide, MoS2, which is cheap and abundant. MoS2 has been studied intensively in the recent years, but besides a remarkable progress of research, the reasons for the activity of the catalysts remain elusive. We have performed detailed neutron scattering and X-ray spectroscopy studies that are presently being analysed and we are seeking a motivated physics or chemistry student who wants to perform molecular dynamics and density functional theory calculations on the effects of the introduction of dopants and defects on the reactivity. The student would be able to participate in neutron scattering experiments if the timing of the internship coincides with ILL beam time.

Activities of the trainee

Molecular dynamics and density functional theory calculations on the ILL computing cluster. Optimization and benchmarking of simulations. Evaluation of the calculation results and comparison with existing spectroscopy data. Participation in neutron scattering experiments if feasible in view of the availability of neutrons during the internship. Writing of a scientific report on the project.

Level required

4/5 year university studies in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science

Language skills

As an international research centre, we are particularly keen to ensure that we also attract applicants from outside France. You must be able to communicate in English or in French.

Notes

This post is an internship with a maximum duration of 4months

Please send your application directly to the supervisor: Peter Fouquet, email : fouquet@ill.fr