The equiatomic face-centered cubic high-entropy alloy CrMnFeCoNi was severely deformed at room and liquid nitrogen temperature by high-pressure torsion up to shear strains of about 170. Its microstructure was analyzed by X-ray line profile analysis and transmission electron microscopy and its texture by X-ray microdiffraction. Microhardness measurements, after severe plastic deformation, were done at room temperature. It is shown that at a shear strain of about 20, a steady state grain size of 24 nm, and a dislocation density of the order of 10¹⁶ m⁻² is reached. The dislocations are mainly screw-type with low dipole character. Mechanical twinning at room temperature is replaced by a martensitic phase transformation at 77 K. The texture developed at room temperature is typical for sheared face-centered cubic nanocrystalline metals, but it is extremely weak and becomes almost random after high-pressure torsion at 77 K. The strength of the nanocrystalline material produced by high-pressure torsion at 77 K is lower than that produced at room temperature. The results are discussed in terms of different mechanisms of deformation, including dislocation generation and propagation, twinning, grain boundary sliding, and phase transformation.

Nanocrystalline materials reveal excellent mechanical properties but the mechanism by which they deform is still debated. X-ray line broadening indicates the presence of large heterogeneous strains even when the average grain size is smaller than 10 nm. Although the primary sources of heterogeneous strains are dislocations, their direct observation in nanocrystalline materials is challenging. In order to identify the source of heterogeneous strains in nanocrystalline materials, we prepared Pd-10 pct Au specimens by inert gas condensation and applied high-pressure torsion (HPT) up to γ ≅ 21. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations are used to investigate the dislocation structure in the grain interiors and in the grain boundary (GB) regions in the as-prepared and HPT-deformed specimens. Our results show that most of the GBs contain lattice dislocations with high densities. The average dislocation densities determined by HRTEM and MD simulation are in good correlation with the values provided by X-ray line profile analysis. Strain distribution determined by MD simulation is shown to follow the Krivoglaz–Wilkens strain function of dislocations. Experiments, MD simulations, and theoretical analysis all prove that the sources of strain broadening in X-ray diffraction of nanocrystalline materials are lattice dislocations in the GB region. The results are discussed in terms of misfit dislocations emanating in the GB regions reducing elastic strain compatibility. The results provide fundamental new insight for understanding the role of GBs in plastic deformation in both nanograin and coarse grain materials of any grain size.

Ultrafine and nanocrystalline states of equiatomic face‐centered cubic (fcc) high‐entropy alloy (HEA) CoCrFeNiMn (“Cantor” alloy) are achieved by high‐pressure torsion (HPT) at 300 K (room temperature, RT) and 77 K (cryo). Although the hardness after RT‐HPT reaches exceptionally high values, those from cryo‐HPT are distinctly lower, at least when the torsional strain lies beyond γ = 25. The values are stable even during long‐time storage at ambient temperature. A similar paradoxal result is reflected by torque data measured in situ during HPT processing. The reasons for this paradox are attributed to the enhanced hydrostatic pressure, cryogenic temperature, and especially large shear strains achieved by the cryo‐HPT. At these conditions, selected area electron diffraction (SAD) patterns indicate that a partial local phase change from fcc to hexagonal close‐packed (hcp) structure occurs, which results in a highly heterogeneous structure. This heterogeneity is accompanied by both an increase in average grain size and especially a strong decrease in average dislocation density, which is estimated to mainly cause the paradox low strength.

An equiatomic high-entropy alloy CrMnFeCoNi was severely deformed at room temperature by high pressure torsion up to shear strains of about 170. Its microstructure and texture were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (X-ray line profile analysis and X-ray microdiffraction, respectively). It is shown that at a shear strain of about 20 a steady state domain/grain size of 24 nm and a dislocation density of 3 × 10 16 m-2 is reached, while the twin density goes over a maximum of 2% at this strain. The texture developed is typical for sheared face-centred cubic metals, but it is extremely weak. The results are discussed in terms of the mechanisms of deformation, including dislocation slip, twinning and grain boundary sliding.