The effect of neutron irradiation on the fracture toughness of two commercially pure tungsten materials processed according to ITER specifications has been investigated for three doses: 0.08 dpa, 0.44 dpa, and 0.67 dpa at 600 °C. The choice of this temperature was motivated by its technological importance due to the risk of irradiation-induced embrittlement. The temperature of 600 °C is below the void swelling peak temperature (∼800 °C) and, at the same time, well above the ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of the reference material (∼300 °C). Neutron irradiation was performed in the BR2 material test reactor inside the fuel channel in order to limit the transmutation of rhenium and osmium close to the rates expected in a fusion environment. The results of the mechanical tests performed up to 600 °C show that the fracture toughness decreases with the increase in the irradiation dose for both tungsten products. The fracture surfaces of the non- A nd irradiated specimens were systematically analysed to determine the evolution of the failure mechanisms. ... Read more

Strongly correlated materials show unique solid-state phase transitions with rich nanoscale phenomenology that can be controlled by external stimuli. Particularly interesting is the case of light–matter interaction in the proximity of the metal–insulator transition of heteroepitaxial nickelates. In this work, we use near-infrared laser light in the high-intensity excitation regime to manipulate the nanoscale phase separation in NdNiO3. By tuning the laser intensity, we can reproducibly set the coverage of insulating nanodomains, which we image by photoemission electron microscopy, thus semipermanently configuring the material state. With the aid of transport measurements and finite element simulations, we identify two different timescales of thermal dynamics in the light–matter interaction: a steady-state and a fast transient local heating. These results open interesting perspectives for locally manipulating and reconfiguring electronic order at the nanoscale by optical means. ... Read more