A Swedish-American physicist has accused the Australian Defence Force Academy's university of destroying his career as a researcher.

Jan Bogdanski is preparing to sue the military university for up to $1 million after it lured him to Australia last year with ''false advice'' about his immigration rights, and with an offer for a job he says does not exist.

The scientist began working as a research associate on a quantum optics project 18 months ago.

However, while the advertised job involved research, with opportunities to present conference papers and write journal articles about his results, Dr Bogdanski alleges he was made to work exclusively as an electrical engineer.

He also says he regularly works 70 hours or more a week, and has no spare time to conduct his own research.

Dr Bogdanski, who was an engineer before beginning his research career and is approaching retirement age, said failing to publish any papers during a two-year posting would make it impossible for him to find a job when he returned to the United States.

He could not help but ''hate this country after my experiences here''.

''I am in a very, very depressing situation. I am going to be put on the street when I go back,'' he said.

''I won't be able to get another research job if all I have to show for my time here is I've done some electrical engineering.''

Before Dr Bogdanski accepted his job, the university's human resources staff told him he could apply for permanent residency once he began working in Australia, a process that would give him access to Medicare.

However, after he moved to Canberra, the Immigration Department informed him he was ineligible to apply due to his age and the particulars of his contract.

The university later told the physicist it only sponsored residency applications for staff with three-year contracts.

The University of NSW, which runs the academic courses at ADFA, did not respond to specific questions from Fairfax Media about the advice it gave to Dr Bogdanski or whether his job matched what was described in his contract.

However, a spokeswoman said the university had told him it would investigate his complaint and had asked ''for his co-operation''.

The university's rector, Professor Michael Frater, wrote to the physicist last week to say the university ''does not believe that it is appropriate to pursue a financial settlement on the terms that you have indicated. I emphasise that I am keen to see the remaining period of your employment to be constructive.''