Spherical nanoindentation creep behavior of nanocrystalline and coarse-grained CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys

Abstract Time-dependent plastic deformation behavior of nanocrystalline (nc) and coarse-grained (cg) CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys (HEAs) was systematically explored through a series of spherical nanoindentation creep experiments. High-pressure torsion (HPT) processing was performed for achieving nc microstructure in the HEA, leading to a reduction in grain size from ∼46 μm for the as-cast state to ∼ 33 nm at the edge of the HPT disk after 2 turns. Indentation creep tests revealed that creep deformation indeed occurs in both cg and nc HEAs even at room temperature and it is more pronounced with an increase in strain. The creep stress exponent, n, was estimated as ∼3 for cg HEA and ∼1 for nc HEA and the predominant creep mechanisms were investigated in terms of the values of n and the activation volumes. Through theoretical calculations and comparison of the creep strain rates for nc HEA and a conventional face-centered-cubic nc metal (Ni), the influence of sluggish diffusion on the creep resistance of nc HEA was analyzed. In addition, sharp indentation creep tests were performed for comparison purposes and the results confirmed that the use of a spherical indenter is clearly more appropriate for investigating the creep behavior of this HEA.