High strain rate plastic deformation driven microstructure evolution in AlCoCrFeNi dual-phase high entropy alloy

High strain rate plastic deformation under laser shock processing (LSP) has been applied to the AlCoCrFeNi dual-phase high entropy alloy (HEA) for optimizing the microstructure and properties. Phase constituents, microstructure evolution of the HEA before and after LSP were investigated. Microstructures of the HEA samples were examined using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Results showed that the microstructure in the LSPed region was obviously refined. High density dislocations were produced in the alloy and dislocation slip was the main plastic deformation mode during LSP treatment. When the laser energy increased to 5 J and 7 J, nano-precipitates, twins and stacking faults appeared, and the plastic deformation mode was a mixture of deformation twinning and dislocation slip. The refined grains, dislocation structures, deformation-induced twins and stacking faults were analyzed and associated with the microhardness. The microhardness of the HEA was significantly improved after LSP, which can be attributed to the synergistic strengthening of grain refining strengthening, precipitation strengthening and dislocation strengthening.