Materials Under Extreme Conditions (ERMEN)

Team leader : Cristelle Pareige

Team members : R. Danoix (MCF), A. Etienne (IR), A. Guillet (MCF), R. Henry (IR), S. Jouen (MCF), S. Moldovan (IR), P. Pareige (Pr), B. Radiguet (MCF), X. Sauvage (DR)

Post-doc : A. Medvedev, G. Hachet

PhD students : J. Allo, A. Zakirov, P.M. Gueye, L. Dubocquet, M. Vrellou, C. Courilleau, J. Renaux, J. Rezkallah.

Keywords : irradiation, matériaux pour l’énergie, déformation intense, nanostructures, systèmes hors équilibre, microscopie analytique à l’échelle atomique.

Research projects usually combine a fundamental and an experimental approach for a better understanding of fundamental physical mechanisms that drive microstructural evolution and the resulting properties of materials subjected to extreme conditions. Most of efforts are devoted to the understanding and the relationships between process and microstructures or microstructures and properties. Many projects are carried out in collaboration with industrial partners and two joint-labs have been founded with EdF and Manoir Industrie.

The ERMEN team has developed a strong expertise in microstructural characterization down to the atomic scale. It is supported by the unique facilities available at GPM, such as the Genesis platform dedicated to radioactive materials and other instruments shared in the lab (APT, conventional, high resolution and analytical TEM, SEM (including FIB, EBSD, TKD), nano and instrumented microindentation, tensile tests, Mossbauer spectrometry, 3D field ion microscopy.

In many projects, experiments are also coupled with numerical simulations (homogeneous chemical kinetics, Monte Carlo, Phase Field) to identify the mechanisms from the mesoscopic scale to the atomic scale. This simulation-experiment coupling is carried out at the same scales to improve the understanding of the physical mechanisms controlling material behavior under extreme conditions.