Dr Jicheng Gong is a Reader in the Department of Engineering, King’s College London.

The central theme of his research has been the development of novel, small-scale mechanical testing methods to address mechanical challenges in Ni, Ti, Zr, Sn, steel and ceramic coatings of particular importance to the aero engine, nuclear, space, accelerators and electronic packaging industries.

Before joining King’s, he was a Senior Research Fellow in the Materials Department at the University of Oxford where he had been developing micromechanical testing methods that use focused ion beam (FIB) to machine micro-cantilevers and micro-pillars, and use high sensitive loading device to deform them to measure the micromechanical properties. The most successful test geometry has been the unique triangular section micro-cantilevers that can determine both micro-tension and compression properties.

He currently leads the development of an ultra-small and ultra-fast mechanical testing technique driven by ultrasonic actuation, enabling robust fatigue tests at the micro- and nano-scale. He has extended the possible accessible length scales upward by using micro-laser machining instead of FIB to fabricate meso-scale mechanical testing pieces, allowing the study of high- and very high-cycle fatigue across three orders of length scale (from 200 nm to 200 µm).

His group encourages students with strong background of materials and/or mechanics to apply for PhD studies. CSC students are welcome.

Research interests

• Micro– and Meso–Scale Mechanical Testing of Advanced Materials
• Fatigue Tests
• Precise Micro laser machining
• Insitu SEM, EBSD, DIC and Thermal Imaging Characterisation Techniques