Ultrastrong ductile and stable high-entropy alloys at small scales

Refractory high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a class of emerging multi-component alloys, showing superior mechanical properties at elevated temperatures and being technologically interesting. However, they are generally brittle at room temperature, fail by cracking at low compressive strains and suffer from limited formability. Here we report a strategy for the fabrication of refractory HEA thin films and small-sized pillars that consist of strongly textured, columnar and nanometre-sized grains. Such HEA pillars exhibit extraordinarily high yield strengths of ∼ 10 GPa--among the highest reported strengths in micro-/nano-pillar compression and one order of magnitude higher than that of its bulk form--and their…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• SN
  Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

  Awards: 200021_143633, 200021_140532
• ET
  Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich