BCC-FCC interfacial effects on plasticity and strengthening mechanisms in high entropy alloys

Al_0.7CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) with a microstructure comprising strain free face-centered cubic (FCC) grains and strongly deformed sub-structured body centered cubic (BCC) grains was subjected to correlative nanoindentation testing, orientation imaging microscopy and local residual stress analysis. Depending on the geometry of BCC-FCC interface, certain boundaries indicated appearance of additional yield excursions apart from the typically observed elastic to plastic displacement burst. The role of interfacial strengthening mechanisms is quantified for small scale deformation across BCC-FCC interphase boundaries. An overall interfacial strengthening of the order of 4GPa was estimated for BCC-FCC interfaces in HEAs. The influence of image forces due to the presence of a BCC-FCC interface is quantified and correlated to the observed local stress and hardness gradients in both the BCC and FCC grains.