Temperature-dependent universal dislocation structures and transition of plasticity enhancing mechanisms of the Fe40Mn40Co10Cr10 high entropy alloy

•Temperature-dependent mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of the Fe40Mn40Co10Cr10 alloy were investigated.•Dislocation structures are similar for both the room-temperature deformation and deformation at −50 °C.•The room temperature deformation accompanies deformation twinning and the subzero temperature deformation involves deformation-induced HCP martensite.•At the high deformation level of the deformation at −50 °C, kink banding and bidirectional transformation could contribute to the strain accommodation and the stress relaxation. The FCC Fe40Mn40Co10Cr10 (at.%) high entropy alloy exhibits deformation twinning for room temperature deformation and deformation-induced HCP transformation for subzero deformation. Since the systematic investigation of temperature-dependent dislocation structures is not available, we present an in-depth characterization of the defects involved in deformation at room temperature (298 K) and subzero temperature (223 K) of the cold-rolled and annealed Fe40Mn40Co10Cr10 alloy. The material deformed at 223 K shows a higher strain hardening rate than the material deformed at room temperature while both materials show large ductility, 48% for the 223 K deformation and 55% for the 298 K deformation. The main deformation mechanisms of the investigated HEA include the development of inhomogeneous dislocation structures and interaction between dislocations and deformation twin/mechanically induced HCP martensite. The stacking fault energy measured using TEM weak-beam dark-field imaging of dissociated dislocations is 20±9 mJ/m2 at 298 K. The Fe40Mn40Co10Cr10 alloy exhibiting a positive temperature dependence of SFE leads to a decrease of SFE as deformation temperature decreases from 298 K to 223 K. The decrease of SFE results in the transition from deformation twinning to deformation-induced HCP transformation. Further, at higher strains at 223 K, kink banding of HCP and reverse transformation from HCP to FCC were observed, which could account for strain accommodation and stress relaxation, and the large ductility. The 298 K deformation leads to various types of dislocation structures: Extended dislocations, Taylor lattice of perfect dislocations, dislocation loops, highly dense dislocation walls, cell blocks, and cell structures. The observed dislocation structures at 298 K and 223 K are similar suggesting the minor effect of SFE on dislocation structures.