PhD contract in Materials Science - high entropy alloys (M/F)

Organisation/Company CNRS Department Matériaux Ingénierie et Science Research Field Engineering Physics » Acoustics Engineering » Materials engineering Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 17 Apr 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Sep 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The doctoral contract is funded through an ANR project. The work will be carried out primarily at the MatéIS laboratory at INSA Lyon, a Materials Science laboratory at the intersection between Chemistry, Physics and Mechanics. The work will be carry out in the METAL (metals and alloys) group.There will be some occasional stays at IJL Nancy. Comparisons between the experimental results of this thesis and multiscale simulations conductedelsewhere as part of the same ANR project will be performed.

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) with a body-centered cubic (bcc) structure aresingle-phase solid solutions composed of elements such as Ti, Zr, Hf, W, Ta, Mo, V, Cr, or Nb, all present in high concentrations. They combine a very high strength even above 1400°C and an excellent thermal stability, making them promising materials for high-temperature applications. However, their ductility at room temperature is limited. Activating the "TRIP" effect (transformation-induced plasticity) seens an interesting approach to improve RT ductility, but very little is known to date on the links between activated mechanisms and alloy composition.

In this doctoral work, a controlled exploration of the RHEA composition space will beconducted by combining additive manufacturing methods and rapid characterization of both structure and mechanical properties. Key compositions will then be selected and produced using classical metallurgy techniques, enabling a more in-depth characterization of microstructures under deformation at room temperature. This will allow for the identification of the sequences of elementary mechanisms associated with the TRIP effect, depending on alloy composition, and their links with macroscopic mechanical properties will be established. The ultimate goal is to provide an informed mapping of these mechanisms and to propose simple design criteria.

The doctoral work will be primarily experimental: synthesis, thermomechanical processing, characterizations (XRD, SEM, EBSD, TEM, etc.), and mechanical testing. The recruited candidate will be expected to present his/her scientific findings at national and international conferences and to write research articles based on the obtained results.