JRC Open Access project

I was finally able to visit the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Petten, the Netherlands, to carry out my Open Access project, which had been accepted in April 2024. This is an opportunity provided by JRC of accessing their advanced research infrastructure by researchers from all over the EU. The full title is “Atomic force microscopy analysis of nanoindents in ion-irradiated Eurofer97”. The total points received are 83/100. The project covers an investigation of an important phenomenon called “indentation pile-up”, where a certain volume of material is pushed out of the bulk during the nanoindentation process. The importance is there because pile-ups actually distort your measurements and, therefore, the extracted properties. It is also known to change with irradiation, as the effect depends on the material microstructure, which changes with the introduced ion or neutron damage. We proposed to study how the pile-up height is dependent on the material state, using the atomic force microscope available at JRC. 

Such a delay (April 2024 – June 2025) resulted from the long administrative process of obtaining my residence ID card, which was required to allow me to travel outside Poland. Despite this postponement, the experimental campaign was completed successfully, and we were even able to perform more measurements than originally planned.

I would like to sincerely thank Katarzyna Mulewska from NOMATEN and Dr. Enrico Corniani from JRC-Petten for their support during the experiments, as well as the JRC administration and everyone involved in making this opportunity possible.