In the last month I've written an abstract for the ISMANAM'2013 conference
that will be held in June in Torino, Italy. The corresponding poster and
paper will concern methods for identification of symmetric and
quasi-symmetric boundaries. We started to look for more efficient
methods for quantification of mixed boundaries. Until now, we have
distances to the nearest tilt and twist boundaries, which are correct
and very complicated and time-consuming to calculate, and we have
Fortes decomposition which is fast, but unstable.

In February I continued my efforts to shape titanium's microstructure by means of plastic deformation procedure. The plan was to deform both grade 2 and grade 4 titanium in order to obtain some more sample material and with sufficient reproducibility. Unfortunately however, deformation process failed, with two prepared extrusion dies (made of tool steel) broken down during attempts at extrusion of grade 2 titanium. This was not expected, as similar material was previously extruded with success, using the same KoBo process parameters. Subsequent attempts were carried out using extrusion dies made of Inconel alloy (heat treated for high temperature performance), but those also failed during extrusion of grade 2 Ti. Since our titanium seems to be behaving slightly different, compared to one that was successfully extruded, I will try and find out how exactly it is different in means of its microstructure and why is it so hard to deform.

During February I was focused on processing of the experimental data obtained from cubic ZrO2 samples. I did some 3D reconstructions which were used for visualization of grain boundaries network and pores morphology. Additionally, I calculated grain numbers, their sizes and level of porosity. Further calculations will be made in the future.

The minority carrier lifetime that is something that is not easy to characterize. It appeared that everything has an effect on this highly important parameter, e.g. size, orientation and distribution of grains, defects and microcracks of base material, also thickness, type of surface cover. However, measurement is essential if one wishes to determine the quality of the texture. The first attempt came out well. Waiting for more...

Main studies carried out during the month:

- preparation of an article for the AMT conference: „Microstructure and properties of AlMnFeCu and AlMnFeSi melt spun ribbons strengthened with quasicrystalline particles”
- preparation of an abstract: „Effect of Ti, Zr and Hf addition on microstructure and properties of rapidly solidified Al-Mn-Fe alloy” for the 20th International Symposium on Metastable, Amorphous and Nanostructured Materials (ISMANAM) 2013
- preparation of an abstract for a symposium „Materials Science for Industry” with the title „Quasicrystalline alloys Al-Mn-Fe obtained using rapid quenching – structure and properties”.
- additional training in SEM technique using PHILIPS XL30 X, Oxford Instrument equipment.
- some additional trials to perform thermomechanical analysis on melt spun ribbons (based on ternary composition as well as quaternary alloys with Hf, Zr, Ti and Mo addition).