Research Assistant, UCN Undergraduate Researcher: nEDM Lid Coating Chamber (PSAC-RC) - Physics *Work-Study Program*

### **NOTE:** **Students must be approved for the 2026-27 Work-Study program in order to be hired for this position. The Work-Study Student Application form is available online here: Work Study Program | Awards | The University of Winnipeg: https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/awards/work-study-program.html** **Please include confirmation of your approval to participate in the Work-Study Program with your application.** **Work-Study Project Title:** UCN Undergraduate Researcher: nEDM Lid Coating Chamber **Competition Number:** WS22.26 **Date Posted:** November 10, 2026 **Department:** Physics **Researcher:** Dr. Russell Mammei **Position Vacancies:** 1 **Salary:** $17.22 - $20.10 per hour plus 6% vacation pay Research Assistants are normally students, in a University of Winnipeg undergraduate program, employed to assist with tasks related to research. Work is performed within defined guidelines and under supervision of a more senior researcher or faculty member. **Position Overview:** The TRIUMF Ultracold Advanced Neutron Collaboration (TUCAN) has demonstrated the world’s most intense source of ultracold neutrons (UCN), greatly increasing the number of UCN delivered to experiments and thereby increasing the pace of scientific of discovery at TRIUMF, Canada’s Particle Accelerator Center. The flagship experiment for the new UCN source is a measurement of the neutron’s electric dipole moment (nEDM). If found it could help explain one of the biggest questions in physics: Why after the Big Bang did matter dominate over antimatter. Polarized UCN will be transported via UCN guides (specially prepared tubes) into a cylindrical measurement cell with lids making a storage volume. The UCN will bounce many millions of times during this process, requiring a UCN “friendly” surface that doesn’t depolarize the UCN or absorb them upon reflection. Diamond-like-Carbon (DLC) is an attractive coating for these components, as it has demonstrated low depolarization probability per bounce and high probability for reflecting UCN. To this end a DLC coating facility has been developed at the University of Winnipeg based on pulsed laser deposition. There are two deposition chambers: One for designed to coat the inside of cylindrical tubes (the UCN Guides) and one designed to coat the large 30cm diameter nEDM cell lids. The researcher will assist our research team with the R&D of improving the DLC coating procedure for the nEDM cell lid coating chamber. **Duties:** * Support the activities of the UCN Guide Coating Facility at UWinnipeg. * Assist with the operation of the excimer laser and deposition chamber during sample coatings. * Assemble and disassemble high vacuum hardware and compressed gas fittings as well as mount and dismount coating samples. * May also take surface science measurements evaluating the coatings through a variety of tools at in the GCF, UWinnipeg, and UofManitoba. **Qualifications** * The student must have taken Phys 2200 + the lab component