AlCoCrCuFeNi high entropy alloy cluster growth and annealing on silicon: A classical molecular dynamics simulation study

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out for describing deposition and annealing processes of AlCoCrCuFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) thin films. Deposition results in the growth of HEA clusters. Further annealing between 300 K and 1500 K leads to a coalescence phenomenon, as described by successive jump in the root mean square displacement of atoms. The simulated X-ray diffraction patterns during annealing reproduces the main feature of the experiments: a phase transition of the cluster structure from bcc to fcc.