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Master Thesis Student in Physics or in Aerospace Engineering (f/m/d)
Job Description
Req ID:  4279
Place of work:  Oberpfaffenhofen
Starting date:  01.05.2026
Career level:  Student research project and final thesis
Type of employment:  Part time
Duration of contract:  6 Monate

Remuneration: Remuneration is in accordance with the Collective Agreement for the Public Sector - Federal Government (TVöD-Bund)

Enter the fascinating world of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.; DLR) and help shape the future through research and innovation! We offer an exciting and inspiring working environment driven by the expertise and curiosity of our 11,000 employees from 100 nations and our unique infrastructure. Together, we develop sustainable technologies and thus contribute to finding solutions to global challenges. Would you like to join us in addressing this major future challenge? Then this is your place!

The DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation is dedicated to mission-oriented research in selected areas of communications and navigation. Its work ranges from the theoretical foundations to the demonstration of new procedures and systems in a real environment and is embedded in DLR's Space, Aeronautics, Transport, Security and Digitalization programmes.

What to expect

Quantum technologies are progressing from theoretical studies and proofs-of-concepts to deployed systems with real-world applications, such as securing communications via Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). However, current QKD networks employ trusted nodes to relay quantum information over long distances and significant technological advancements will be required to enable QKD at global scales. To do so, a promising network architecture is to combine the use of free-space optical links, which have losses scaling quadratically with the link length, and satellite-based quantum repeaters, which can generate long-distance entanglement at the endpoints via entanglement swapping. Quantum memories are a key enabling technology to implement it, but their performance in terms of coherence time, storage capacity and bandwidth has to increase by orders of magnitude in order to support QKD and other applications. The goal of this master thesis is to analyse a novel concept, recently developed in our group, for a fully-optical quantum memory which, from preliminary investigations, seems to be feasible with current technology and to be reaching or exceeding the performance requirements of a satellite-based repeater network.

Your tasks

The goal of the work is to consolidate all aspects of our novel quantum memory concept and determine the performance requirements for the most critical components, such as

  • the entanglement source,
  • the optical assembly,
  • the satellite attitude control and
  • the electro-optical beam steering.

Your profile

  • Ongoing studies in Physics or Aerospace Engineering
  • Good mathematical and physical modelling skills
  • Good programming skills
  • Ability to solve problems independently
  • Fluency in spoken and written English

We offer

DLR stands for diversity, appreciation and equality for all people. We promote independent work and the individual development of our employees both personally and professionally. To this end, we offer numerous training and development opportunities. Equal opportunities are of particular importance to us, which is why we want to increase the proportion of women in science and management in particular. Applicants with severe disabilities will be given preference if they are qualified.

We look forward to getting to know you!

 

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 4279) please contact:

Your contact: Dr. Davide Orsucci

Tel. +49 (0)8153 - 28 4273
Apply now