Ultrabroad distribution of multiple anelasticities in O-doped refractory multiprincipal element alloys

The Snoek anelastic internal friction (IF) peak due to stress-induced dipole ordering associated with interstitial atoms was well observed in IF curves of single-principal element alloys (SPEAs) as early as in the 1950s, however, its behavior remains elusive in multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) to date. Here the temperature-dependent IF spectra of NbTiV0.5Zr refractory MPEAs with varying O contents were presented, and the analysis of these data indicates that for O-doped NbTiV0.5Zr MPEAs, the O addition triggers two anelastic IF peaks (the PO1 and PO2), corresponding to the O-Snoek-type relaxation in random solid solution (RSS) and local chemical ordering (LCO) structures, respectively. The half-peak width of the PO1 is 2–3 times broader than that for SPEAs, associated with the wide O migration energy barrier distribution in MPEAs. These phenomena show a striking contrast to the single and narrow Snoek-type peak observed for SPEAs. Our analysis further reveals an approximate linear correlation between the half-peak width of the Snoek-type peak and the mixing entropy. The introduction of O also shifts grain boundary relaxation peaks (PG) towards higher temperatures. Interestingly, high-temperature anomalous modulus changes were observed for the first time in TiV-based lightweight refractory MPEAs, which is suggested to be originated from the order reduction of the body-centered cubic (bcc) structure at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the 1 at.%O doped NbTiV0.5Zr MPEA with a favorable balance between the peak heights of the PO2 and PG, exhibits outstanding specific yield stress (SYS) among refractory MPEAs while maintaining an elongation as high as 20%. This work provides not only a bridge between the anelastic behavior of SPEAs and MPEAs for upcoming studies and theories concerning bcc MPEAs with interstitial atoms, but contributes to the holistic design of bcc MPEAs with high strength and excellent ductility.