“COMBINATORIAL SYNTHESIS OF MAGNETIC HIGH ENTROPY ALLOYS”

Abstract

High Entropy Alloys are a new class of alloys that have gained a lot of interest because of their outstanding mechanical properties even at low temperatures. Present study focuses on designing a HEA having notable magnetic properties. Due to the presence of multiple components in the system, prediction of the number of phases and their type is difficult considering the limitations in empirical or thermodynamic predictions. To study the effect of each constituting element, a 5 component system comprising of Fe, Mn, Ni, Co, Nb as constituent elements if investigated starting from binaries, ternaries until quaternary and quinary systems. Such a detailed investigation allows for the identification of regions exhibiting single phase solid solution over a wide compositional space. Thin films of these systems are sputtered using custom designed physical vapor deposition system, exploiting the advantages of Combinatorics. Using inferences from these systems a single phase BCC FeMnNiCoNb (varying Nb content from 5at% to 9 at%) alloy system was obtained which exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour.