From 29 March to 1 April 2012 I had the pleasure to participate in the III Symposium on Photovoltaic and Transparent Electronics - Perspectives of Development. At the Symposium I have presented the speech entitled "Chemical texturisation of crystalline silicon surface in solution based on HF and HNO3 and its influence on functional parameters of solar cells." Subject matter was awarded by its publication in the technical journal Elektronika, and same speach awarded second prize by the Scientific Committee of the Symposium.

My research in March:
- Vicker’s microhardness test performed on the third series of composite samples
(with submicron AlN reinforcement)
- ball-milling of Al/AlN (10%) and AA7475/AlN (5%) powders
- uniaxial hot pressing of Al/AlN (10%) ball milled powder
- TEM investigations of Al/Mg3N2 compacts with EDX anlysis

My research carried out in March:
- preparing the surface of the AA3004 aluminium alloy for EBSD/SEM measurements: grinding on abrasive papers (it was need to take off 1 mm of the surface)and polishing using diamond pastes and electropolishing.
- obtaining EBSD orientation maps for the AA3004 aluminium alloy after processing through ECAP die and recrystallised in conditions:
a) 1h - 400°C;
b) 1h - 350°C;
c) 1h - 300°C;
d) 1h - 200°C.
First look on the obtained microstructures showed that the ultra-fine grained structure is kept till 200°C, because in 300°C are observed great grains and grains growth is continued in higher temperatures.

Main studies carried out during March:

- microhardness measurements of the melt - spun ribbons with chromium, titanium, and vanadium addition in the as- cast state,
- preparation of new pentanary alloy,
- investigation of thin foils with titanium and vanadium addition using TEM,
- trials of obtaining melt spun ribbons from ingot of pentanary alloy
- TEM investigation of thin ribbons with zirconium addition – analysis of microstructure evaluation after annealing
- XRD analysis of quaternary ingot with copper and silicon addition,
- analysis of the results obtained so far,
- participation in seminars and lectures,

This month I was focused on 3D EBSD experiments on aluminium 6013 alloy after severe plastic deformation. The new software that was installed 2 months ago works quite well. Apart from data collection, data post processing was also carried out. Since there are no well established methods for data processing, final results are quite arguable. One of the goals in my work is to solve the issue.