Nanoindentation creep behavior in a CoCrFeCuNi high-entropy alloy film with two different structure states

A CoCrFeCuNi high-entropy alloy (HEA) film, with thickness of about 1450nm, was prepared by magnetron sputtering using alloy target. The structure of HEA film was fully relaxed by annealing at temperature of 800K for one hour. The atomic lattice structures and morphologies of the surface and cross-section were detected in both as-deposited and annealed films by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. The results indicate that a simple face-centered cubic (fcc) structure in the as-deposited film and the structure configuration in the annealed one was strongly changed, even a tiny but non-ignorable body-centered cubic (bcc) structure emerged. Furthermore, the creep behaviors of both samples were systematically studied by nanoindentation with a spherical tip. The sample׳s ability to resist both instantaneous and time-dependent plastic deformation was weakened after annealing. The creep behaviors of both cases were promoted at higher loads. Meanwhile, the effect of loading rate on the steady-state creep was more complicated: creep rate was accelerated in the as-deposited film with the loading rate, however it showed an opponent variation trend in the annealed one. Moreover, strain rate sensitivity was calculated from the steady-state creep and the creep deformation mechanism was discussed.