Evidence for Distributed Fault Energetics and Their Impact on Deformation in a Chemically Complex Alloy
Abstract
Chemically complex alloys feature intrinsically heterogeneous local chemical environments and, consequently, fluctuations in local fault energetics. However, experimentally quantifying their relationship remains challenging, leaving the role of this distributed energy landscape in deformation mechanisms incompletely resolved. Here, we develop a distribution based framework linking experimentally measured stacking fault widths to deformation relevant apparent fault energy, revealing a distributed local fault-energy landscape in CrCoNi. The framework reveals the stabilizing role of energy fluctuations and captures an upward shift in the apparent fault energetics, from negative values toward zero following heat treatment, which atomistic simulations associate with the emergence of L12 type chemical short-range order. Using one-dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, supported by electron microscopy observations, we further show that history-dependent changes in the local fault-energy landscape bias the competition among stacking faulting, nano-twinning and HCP transformation in CrCoNi. Our results provide an experimentally anchored, distribution-based framework for understanding deformation in chemically complex alloys as it evolves within a distributed fault-energy landscape shaped by local chemical order.
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BibTeX
@misc{yin2026evidence,
title = {{Evidence for Distributed Fault Energetics and Their Impact on Deformation in a Chemically Complex Alloy}},
author = {Kaijun Yin and Jun-Ping Du and Peijun Yu and Rui Feng and Hanyu Hou and Haw-Wen Hsiao and Ke An and Peter K. Liaw and Shigenobu Ogata and Jian-Min Zuo},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.36780},
eprint = {2609.36780},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36780},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Evidence for Distributed Fault Energetics and Their Impact on Deformation in a Chemically Complex Alloy
AU - Kaijun Yin
AU - Jun-Ping Du
AU - Peijun Yu
AU - Rui Feng
AU - Hanyu Hou
AU - Haw-Wen Hsiao
AU - Ke An
AU - Peter K. Liaw
AU - Shigenobu Ogata
AU - Jian-Min Zuo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.36780
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36780
AB - Chemically complex alloys feature intrinsically heterogeneous local chemical environments and, consequently, fluctuations in local fault energetics. However, experimentally quantifying their relationship remains challenging, leaving the role of this distributed energy landscape in deformation mechanisms incompletely resolved. Here, we develop a distribution based framework linking experimentally measured stacking fault widths to deformation relevant apparent fault energy, revealing a distributed local fault-energy landscape in CrCoNi. The framework reveals the stabilizing role of energy fluctuations and captures an upward shift in the apparent fault energetics, from negative values toward zero following heat treatment, which atomistic simulations associate with the emergence of L12 type chemical short-range order. Using one-dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, supported by electron microscopy observations, we further show that history-dependent changes in the local fault-energy landscape bias the competition among stacking faulting, nano-twinning and HCP transformation in CrCoNi. Our results provide an experimentally anchored, distribution-based framework for understanding deformation in chemically complex alloys as it evolves within a distributed fault-energy landscape shaped by local chemical order.
ER -