Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326

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Materials & Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Microstructural evolution of (FeCoNi)85.84Al7.07Ti7.09 high-entropy alloy

fabricated by an optimized selective laser melting process
Pengcheng Ji a, Zhenhui Wang a, Yongkun Mu a, YanDong Jia a,b, Gang Wang a,b
a
Institute of Materials, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
b
Zhejiang Institute of Advanced Materials, Shanghai University, Jiashan 314100, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Addressed the currently unknown

optimal processing parameters
required for fabricating highly dense
FeCoNiAlTi-HEA components by
selective laser melting.

The nearly full dense FeCoNiAlTi-HEA
was successfully fabricated by
selective laser melting and exhibited
a highly nonequilibrium
microstructure.

A unique dislocation network
structure with the accompanying
segregation of titanium and
aluminum are formed by selective
laser melting.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: High-entropy alloy (HEA) FeCoNiAlTi (FCNAT) systems have been demonstrated to provide high strength
Received 27 June 2022 while sustaining good ductility, which is of particular interest for the fabrication of structural compo-
Revised 15 October 2022 nents with complex geometries. Meanwhile, selective laser melting (SLM) technology that fabricated
Accepted 26 October 2022
metallic material using layer-by-layer melting strategy can meet this demand. However, SLM fabrication
Available online 28 October 2022
technology has not yet been applied in conjunction with FCNAT-HEA systems, and the optimal SLM pro-
cessing parameters and the microstructural characteristics of the resulting components remain
Keywords:
unknown. The present study addresses this issue by fabricating highly dense (>99.9 %) cubic
Selective laser melting
High-entropy alloy
(FeCoNi)85.84Al7.09Ti7.07 FCNAT-HEA samples. The results demonstrate that the as-fabricated FCNAT-
Dislocation network structure HEA samples possess highly non-equilibrium microstructures that form under the rapid heating and
Cellular structure cooling cycles of the SLM process, and include typical overlapping between semi-elliptical melt pools,
Process parameter optimization widely varying grain morphologies with coarse columnar grains and typical equiaxed grains with
h0 0 1i growth orientation, dislocation network structures with elemental Ti and Al segregation, high-
density L21-phase precipitates with sizes on the order of 200–300 nm, and near-spherical nano-sized
Al-oxide particles. This research confirms the feasibility of fabricating FCNAT-HEA components by SLM,
and therefore provides guidance for fabricating such HEA components with complex geometries.
Ó 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

The pursuit of metallic materials with superior properties and/

or special microstructures has currently reached a point where
E-mail address: yandongjia@shu.edu.cn (Y. Jia)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2022.111326
0264-1275/Ó 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al.
conventional alloys composed of single principle elements can
achieve no further substantial breakthroughs due to the inherent
limitations of the design concept involved [1]. Accordingly, this
has led to the development of innovative design concepts such as
the use of multiple principle elements to develop a new class of
metallic alloys denoted as high-entropy alloys (HEAs) [2–7]. The
application of multiple principle elements imparts many unique
characteristics to HEAs that are not attainable by conventional
single-principle-component alloys owing mainly to thermody-
namic high-entropy effects, kinetic hysteresis diffusion effects,
structural lattice distortion effects, and other effects related to
the mixing of the principle components [3,8]. Therefore, HEAs have
attracted considerable attention worldwide.
Currently, most HEA components are fabricated by vacuum arc
melting, casting, and other conventional methods [3,7,9,10]. How-
ever, many HEAs must sacrifice ductility for attaining high
strength, and it is difficult to break through the strengthening lim-
itation and strength–ductility trade-off. This issue has been
addressed by the development of FeCoNiAlTi (FCNAT) systems
with optimized compositions that can provide high strength while
preserving good ductility. At present, FCNAT-HEA components
have been fabricated mainly by conventional methods, including
vacuum arc melting [11], powder metallurgy [12], and a combina-
tion of mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS)
[1,13,14]. Yang et al. [11]. reported a FCNAT-HEA by controllably
introducing high-density ductile multicomponent intermetallic
nanoparticles (MCINPs) in FCNAT systems. Distinct from the
intermetallic-induced embrittlement under conventional wisdom,
such MCINP-strengthened FCNAT systems alloys exhibit superior
strengths of 1.5 gigapascals and ductility as high as 50 % in tension
at ambient temperature. Fu et al. [12]. designed and fabricated the
(FeCoNi)87Al6Ti7 medium entropy alloy enhanced by dispersive L12
nanoparticles with outstanding strength-ductility combination
through powder metallurgy method. The strength improvement
is mainly attributed to the grain refinement and dislocation pin-
ning. However, the technological limitations of these conventional
fabrication methods make them unsuitable for meeting the high
demand for fabricating structural HEA components with complex
geometries. Therefore, the use of HEAs in real-world applications
and industrial production is greatly restricted.
This issue could be potentially addressed by additive manufac-
turing (AM) technologies, which have been successfully applied in
the fabrication of structural components composed of conventional
alloys, such as Ti6Al4V [15–17], martensitic steels [18], high-
entropy alloy [19], and aluminum alloys [20,21]. Among the vari-
ous AM techniques that are currently available, selective laser
melting (SLM) is a typical laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technol-
ogy that applies a layer-by-layer molding strategy for fabricating
metallic material components [22–27]. As a result, SLM offers
many unique advantages, such as net-shape manufacturing capa-
bility, high design freedom, capability of manufacturing compo-
nents with high geometrical complexity, efficient use of
materials, and high manufacturing precision. Furthermore, the
ultrafast cooling rate in the range of 103–108 K/s employed by
SLM enables this technology to produce metallic components with
refined microstructures that are distinct from those produced by
conventional methods [28–30]. These advantages and characteris-
tics have engendered the wide application of SLM in numerous set-
tings such as aerospace, automobile, and biomedical fields [16,23].
However, to the best of authors’ knowledge, SLM technology has
not been widely used to prepare FCNAT-HEA components.
The present work addresses this issue by fabricating
(FeCoNi)85.84Al7.07Ti7.09 FCNAT-HEA samples by SLM for the first
time. Extensive testing is first applied to determine the optimal
processing parameters and volumetric energy density (VED)
required for obtaining cubic FCNAT-HEA samples with maximum
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Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326
density. The unique layer-by-layer microstructure and chemical
compositions of the optimally fabricated FCNAT-HEA samples are
then evaluated systematically. This research confirms the feasibil-
ity of fabricating FCNAT-HEA components by SLM, and therefore
provides guidance for fabricating such HEA components with com-
plex geometries by means of AM strategies.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Powder preparation and characterization
Currently, the HEA powders employed in AM operations are
mainly fabricated by mechanical alloying (MA), water atomization
(WA), and gas atomization (GA) processes [23,31], all of which can
produce powders with homogeneous chemical compositions. The
HEA powders produced by WA or MA processes typically exhibit
irregular shapes that tend to result in poor fluidity. In contrast,
powders produced by the GA process typically exhibit good
sphericity and uniform particle size distributions that enhance flu-
idity, which is a very important requirement of AM operations
[31,32]. Therefore, the present study fabricated FCNAT-HEA pow-
ders via the GA process. The specific powder preparation procedure
is given as follows. Firstly, to obtain the FCNAT-HEA ingots with
uniform chemical composition, the raw materials prepared based
on the atomic ratio of each constituent element designed in the
HEA were melted by vacuum arc melting at least five times in a
high purity argon atmosphere. Secondly, a high-pressure and
high-velocity argon jet was applied to a stream of the molten
HEA in a GA device to obtain powders with different particle size
distributions. Finally, particles with an average size of 35 lm that
are suitable for SLM were obtained by screening.
The morphology and elemental distributions of the as-prepared
FCNAT-HEA powder were analyzed by scanning electron micro-
scopy (SEM) using an SU-1510 microscope (Hitachi, Japan)
equipped with an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) unit. The
average chemical composition of the FCNAT-HEA powder was
determined precisely by inductively coupled plasma mass spec-
troscopy (ICP-MS), and the results are listed in Table 1. In addition,
a Bettersize 3000 laser particle size analyzer was applied for mea-
suring the particle size distribution of the FCNAT-HEA powder.
2.2. Bulk sample fabrication
Prior to conducting SLM processing, the FCNAT-HEA powder
was dried in a vacuum drying oven and a temperature of 80 °C
for 4 h to remove moisture, and then the powder was allowed to
cool naturally to room temperature. Cubic FCNAT-HEA samples
with dimensions of 10 mm  10 mm  10 mm were fabricated
on 304 stainless steel plates by SLM using an HBD-100 (Hanbang
United 3D Tech Co, ltd., Shanghai, China) metal three-
dimensional (3D) printer equipped with a single-mode fiber laser
(IPG, Germany) as the energy source. The laser had a spot diameter
of 60 lm, an optical wavelength of 1064 nm, and a maximum
power of 200 W. All SLM processing was conducted under a
high-purity argon atmosphere to guarantee an oxygen content
below 100 ppm, and thereby avoid oxidation during the sample
fabrication process. The various process parameters, including
laser power (P), scanning speed (v), layer thickness (t), and the dis-
tance between the centers of two successive laser passes, denoted
as the hatch spacing (h) employed in the optimization study are
listed in Table 2, where the sample platform was rotated by 67°
after applying every build layer to obtain a no-pattern mode laser
scan strategy. Furthermore, the samples were fabricated in a con-
tourless manner. Here, only P and v were varied during the opti-
mization process because t, h, and the rotation angle have been
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al.
Table 1
Chemical compositions (at%) of the as-fabricated powder and cubic FCNAT-HEA samples.
Sample Fe Co
Powder 29.35 28.69
Overall 28.10 27.95
Matrix 31.29 29.69
L21 21.69 27.94
Table 2
SLM process parameters applied during process optimization.
Parameter Value
Laser power (W) 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180
Scanning speed (mm/s) 600, 800,1000,1200,1400,1600
Layer thickness (lm) 30
Hatch spacing (lm) 50
Rotation angle (°) 67
demonstrated independently to represent optimal values under
general fabrication conditions.
2.3. Microstructural characterization
The Archimedes method was applied for measuring the relative
density of the cubic FCNAT-HEA samples fabricated under the var-
ious process parameters. The density of each sample was measured
five times, and the average reported herein. The crystalline phase
constituents of the FCNAT-HEA powder and cubic samples were
identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using a D\max-2550 diffrac-
tometer (Rigaku, Japan) with Cu-Ka radiation (k = 1.54056 Å) at
a voltage of 40 kV, over a 2h range from 20° to 100°, and a corre-
sponding scan speed of 2° min1. The cubic FCNAT-HEA samples
were segmented into sections with dimensions of
10 mm  10 mm  3 mm for microstructural analyses using a
Secotom-60 metallographic cutting machine. The sections were
cut along directions both parallel and perpendicular to the build
direction (BD). The cut samples were mechanically polished with
SiC abrasive paper (up to 2000 grit) and diamond lapping paste,
and then etched with aqua regia for 3–5 s. Microstructural analyses
were conducted via optical microscopy (OM) using a GX53 micro-
scope (Olympus, Japan) and SEM in backscatter electron mode
using a Nova Nano SEM 450 (FEI, USA). Five optical micrographs
(OMs) of the section of each sample were captured for porosity
measurements, and the porosity in each OM was calculated as a
percentage by area using Image-Pro Plus software. The prepared
sample sections were also employed as plan-view and cross-
sectional specimens for analysis by transmission electron micro-
scopy (TEM) using a JEM-2100 microscope operated at an acceler-
ation voltage of 200 kV and equipped with an X-Max 80 TLE EDS
unit (Oxford Instruments, UK). All TEM samples were prepared
from the sample sections using a twin-jet polishing technique,
where the samples were ground down to a  40 lm thickness
using SiC abrasive paper with different grit grades, and then
thinned in a mixture of 10 vol% perchloric acid and 90 vol% alcohol
at a temperature of 243 K with a voltage of 20.5 V. The mechani-
cally polished FCNAT-HEA section samples were subjected to ion
etching, and the grain growth orientations, grain boundary charac-
teristics, and textures of the processed section samples were eval-
uated by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) using a Nordlys
Nano detector (Oxford Instruments, UK). The EBSD results were
applied for developing inverse pole figure (IPF), image quality
(IQ), and kernel average misorientation (KAM) maps.
3
Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326
Ni Al Ti
28.65 6.78 6.53
29.80 7.09 7.07
26.46 5.89 6.59
26.01 10.06 14.30
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Powder characterization
The powder materials employed for fabricating HEAs strongly
influences the quality and properties of the SLM-fabricated prod-
ucts. Therefore, the FCNAT-HEA powders obtained by the GA pro-
cess were characterized in detail. The morphology of the FCNAT-
HEA powder can be evaluated according to the representative
SEM image presented in Fig. 1(a). The results of particle size anal-
ysis presented in Fig. 1(c) indicate that the average size of the pow-
der particles was 40.84 lm, while 10 % of the particles had Dv10
sizes less than or equal to 25.56 lm and 90 % of the particles
had Dv90 sizes less than or equal to 60.04 lm. It can be found that
the powder consists of a high proportion of nearly spherical parti-
cles and relatively few irregular-shaped particles (Fig. 1(a)). Fur-
thermore, it can be seen that the large particles tend to have
relatively rough surfaces, and some of these particles include a
number of small satellite particles attached to their surfaces,
whereas the large particles with relatively smooth surfaces have
little or no attached satellite particles. The formation of satellite
particles is caused by collisions between the solidifying droplets
during the GA process. Moreover, the formation of satellite parti-
cles can be expected to affect the fluidity of the HEA powder
adversely. A high magnification SEM image is presented in Fig. 1
(b) for an individual large particle, where grain boundaries and
micro-dendritic surface features are observed. The corresponding
elemental maps obtained from EDS analysis demonstrate that the
elemental distributions are relatively uniform without obvious
segregation. The XRD phase analysis presented in Fig. 1(d) indi-
cates that the FCNAT-HEA powder is mainly composed of the fcc
phase, and weak fcc phase and L21-phase peaks are also detected
near the (1 1 1) plane of the fcc phase, as is clearly revealed in
the inset of the figure.
3.2. Optimization of SLM process parameters
The influence of the SLM process parameters listed in Table 2 on
the characteristics of the samples was clarified by utilizing the VED
(J/mm3) as an index for defining the amount of energy imparted by
the laser beam during the SLM process [33,34]. The VED can be cal-
culated as follows [35],
P
VED ¼
v ht
Accordingly, the VED is proportional to P, and inversely propor-
tional to v, h, and t. Generally, the extent to which the particles of
the powder layer melt and the size of the resulting melt pools
increase with increasing VED. However, an excessively high VED
generates balling and evaporation effects, which result in the for-
mation of keyholes or metallurgical pores that decrease the density
of the processed powder layers [18,36]. Thus, appropriate process
parameters and VED values are both crucial for optimizing sample
density. Based on the ranges of parameter values listed in Table 2
and the VED formula, the VED values applied in this study ranged
from 33.33 J/mm3 to 200 J/mm3.
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al. Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326

Fig. 1. Analysis of FCNAT-HEA powder particles: (a) low magnification SEM micrograph; (b) high magnification SEM micrograph and elemental distribution maps of a single
powder particle; (c) particle size distribution plot; (d) XRD patterns, where the inset presents the details associated with the (1 1 1) plane of the fcc phase and the L21-phase.

The relative density obtained for the cubic FCNAT-HEA samples
prepared under the applied parameter values listed in Table 2 are
presented in Fig. 2(a) with respect to P and v. Here, Sample A
(VED = 33.33 J/mm3, P = 80 W, v = 1600 mm/s), Sample B
(VED = 88.89 J/mm3, P = 160 W, v = 1200 mm/s), and Sample C
(VED = 200 J/mm3, P = 180 W, v = 600 mm/s) are marked explicitly
in the figure according to the applied process parameters. In addi-
tion, the results are subdivided into Zones I, II, and III according to
the impact of P, v, and VED on the relative density. Here, Zone I
(typified by Sample A) represents a region of incomplete melting
due to overly small values of P applied in conjunction with rela-
tively large values of v, Zone II (typified by Sample B) represents
a fully dense region corresponding to optimal or nearly optimal
parameter values, and Zone III (typified by Sample C) represents
a region of overheating with overly large values of P applied in con-
junction with relatively small values of v. These results demon-
strate that the appropriate ranges of processing parameter values
are 140 W  P  160 W and 1000 mm/s  v  1600 mm/s, which
result in VED values between 88.89 J/mm3 and 120 J/mm3, and
provide cubic FCNAT-HEA samples with relative densities greater
than 99 %. In addition, we plot the relative density of the cubic
samples as a function of the VED in Fig. 2(b), where Samples A,

Fig. 2. Optimization results for the SLM processing parameters listed in Table 2 applied for fabricating cubic FCNAT-HEA samples: (a) relative density plotted with respect to
the scanning speed (v) and laser power (P); (b) relative density plotted with respect to the VED value. The specific sample parameters are Sample A: VED = 33.33 J/mm3,
P = 80 W, v = 1600 mm/s; Sample B: VED = 88.89 J/mm3, P = 160 W, v = 1200 mm/s; Sample C: VED = 200 J/mm3, P = 180 W, v = 600 mm/s. The results in (a) can be subdivided
into Zones I, II, and III, where Zone I represents a region of incomplete melting, Zone II represents a fully dense region, and Zone III represents a region of overheating.

4
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al.
B, and C are again marked explicitly in the figure. This plot illus-
trates the impact of the VED on the relative density of the samples
particularly well, where the relative density is observed to increase
initially to a maximum value with increasing VED, and then
decreases with further increase in the VED. The relative density
and porosity value of representative FCNAT-HEA samples have
been presented in Table 3.
The factors affecting sample preparation along the BD for pro-
cessing Zones I, II, and III are illustrated by the representative
OM images and schematics illustrating the building processes of
cubic FCNAT-HEA samples A, B, and C in Fig. 3(a), (b)–(e), (f),
respectively. Usually, the shape of each melt pool observed in the
section along the BD is assumed to be semi-elliptical with width
(W) and depth (D), where OW is the width of the overlap between
two melt pools, OD is the depth of the overlap between two melt
pools, and the size of the melt pools depends on the VED value
of the SLM process [18]. As shown in Fig. 3(a), the OM image cap-
tured along the BD of Sample A (VED = 33.33 J/mm3, P = 80 W,
v = 1600 mm/s) exhibits dark irregular areas reflecting numerous
pore defects with irregular shapes. The observed pore defects have
an average size of about 100 lm and are randomly distributed
within the cubic sample, while some of the relatively large pore
defects stretch over several metallurgical bonding layers along
the BD with some incomplete melting or unmelted powder parti-
cles within the pores, as illustrated in Fig. 3(b). As shown in
Fig. 3(c) for Sample B (VED = 88.89 J/mm3, P = 160 W,
v = 1200 mm/s), an increasing VED value greatly improves the
quality of the cubic sample along the BD, and no obvious pores
are detected. As illustrated in Fig. 3(d), sufficient energy input fully
melts the particles in the layer and the size of the melt pools has
increased relative to those obtained in Zone I. Meanwhile, the
increased energy input can improve the wettability of the liquid
metal and strengthen the metallurgical bonding between adjacent
melt pools and consecutive building layers. Finally, as shown in
Fig. 3(e) for Sample C (VED = 200 J/mm3, P = 180 W,
v = 600 mm/s), the sample exhibits numerous nearly spherical pore
defects within an otherwise highly dense region. As illustrated in
Fig. 3(f), these nearly spherical pore defects can be attributed to
the entrapment of environmental argon as bubbles in the melt pool
under the combined effects of the excessive energy input and
ultrafast cooling rate on the order of 103–108 K/s. According to this
analysis, all subsequent cubic FCNAT-HEA samples were obtained
with the optimal processing parameters P = 160 W,
v = 1200 mm/s, and a VED of 88.89 J/mm3 under which a maximum
relative density of  99.95 % was obtained.
3.3. Microstructural characterization
The XRD patterns obtained with respect to the top and side
faces of an optimally processed cubic FCNAT-HEA sample are pre-
sented in Fig. 4(a), and the region nearby the (1 1 1) and (2 0 0)
peaks is expanded in Fig. 4(b). In addition, the XRD pattern origi-
nally presented in Fig. 1(d) for the FCNAT-HEA powder is replicated
here for comparison. As observed for the powder, the cubic sample
is mainly composed of the fcc phase, and a weak L21- phase peak is
detected near the (1 1 1) plane of the fcc phase, although the nearby
weak fcc phase peak is no longer observable in the cubic sample
Table 3
Relative density and porosity values of cubic FCNAT-HEA samples formed under
various volumetric energy density (VED) levels.
Sample VED (J/mm3) Relative density (%) Porosity (%)
A 33.33 88.17 35.82
B 88.89 99.95 0.24
C 200 94.59 6.24
5
Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326
and the intensity of the L21-phase peak is reduced considerably
relative to that observed for the powder. Because the L21-phase
is formed at the final stage of solidification, its size is largely
affected by the cooling rate. In addition to the cooling rate, the for-
mation of the L21-phase is also affected by the solidification struc-
ture, which depends on the ratio of temperature gradient (G) to the
growth rate (R). Under a high cooling rate and low G/R ratio, small
equiaxed dendrite arm spacing is beneficial to the formation of
some scattering phase particles [37]. In this study, the alloy pow-
der and FCNAT-HEA were prepared at a very high cooling rate, so
some scattered L21-particles would be formed. In addition, the
(1 1 1) and (2 0 0) peaks of the cubic sample have shifted to slightly
lower angles and become broader compared with those observed
for the powder (Fig. 4(b)), suggesting that the inter-planar spacing
and lattice constant have increased for the processed powder.
These changes can be attributed to the residual stress and high-
density dislocations generated within the cubic FCNAT-HEA sam-
ple due to the rapid melting and cooling of the SLM process. Fur-
thermore, the relative intensities of the (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) peaks
observed for the top and side of the cubic sample are considerably
different, indicating the obvious presence of preferential orienta-
tion within the sample.
We present OM images of the top and side surfaces of an opti-
mally processed cubic FCNAT-HEA sample in Fig. 5(a) and (e),
respectively. We note that the stripe-like laser scanning tracks
observed along the top surface of the cubic sample in Fig. 5(a)
are consistent with the scan strategy utilized in this study, where
scan tracks were applied with a measured average hatch spacing
of 55 lm and consecutive scan tracks crossed at an angle of 67°.
The etched side surface in Fig. 5(e) clearly represents a typical lay-
ered microstructure with overlapping semi-elliptical scan tracks in
accordance with the layer-by-layer molding strategy of SLM. Fur-
thermore, no obvious fusion defects such as pore defects are
detected at the interfaces of the overlapping melt pools, which
indicates strong metallurgical bonding between consecutive build
layers. Based on measurements obtained for multiple melt pools
in Fig. 5(e), the average width and depth of the melt pools are
about 125 lm and 55 lm, respectively.
The fine microstructure of the top surface can be evaluated
according to the BSE-SEM images presented in Fig. 5(b)–(d), which
present an atypical equiaxed cellular structure with an average
size of about 1 lm extending over the boundaries between adja-
cent laser tracks. In contrast, the fine microstructure of the side
surface exhibited in the BSE-SEM images given in Fig. 5(e)–(h) pre-
sent numerous fine columnar structures and slightly elongated cel-
lular structures with an average width of about 1 lm formed in the
melt pools. Similar microstructures that cannot be attained by con-
ventional fabrication methods have been reported for other alloy
samples formed by AM techniques [38–41]. The formation of this
microstructure is mainly related to the unique solidification condi-
tions arising under rapid cooling in the SLM process. In addition, it
can be clearly seen from the figures that the columnar structures
grew in bundles along the same direction toward the upper center
of each melt pool, and exhibit an epitaxial growth state. Noticeably,
the columnar structures grew across melt pool boundaries and
extended over multiple melt pools with lengths on the order of
100 lm (Fig. 5(f)). This characteristic growth is caused by the ther-
mal gradient formed by the heat dissipated from subsequent build-
ing layers. The observed microstructures on the top and side
surfaces indicate that the cubic FCNAT-HEA sample fabricated by
SLM can be approximately viewed as consisting of a large number
of atypical oblique pentagonal or hexagonal honeycomb structures
with an average diameter of  1 lm.
The grain structure of the cubic FCNAT-HEA sample can be fur-
ther evaluated according to the EBSD-IPF maps obtained along the
top and side surfaces of the sample, which are presented in Fig. 6
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al. Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326

Fig. 3. OM images along the build direction (BD) and schematics illustrating the building processes of cubic FCNAT-HEA samples A, B, and C fabricated with different process
parameter and VED values: (a) and (b) Sample A with a transverse cross-section of adjacent melt pools illustrating the formation of fusion defects, where W is the width of the
melt pool, OW is the width of the overlap between two melt pools, D is the depth of the melt pool, OD is the depth of the overlap between two melt pools, and h is the hatch
spacing; (c) and (d) Sample B exhibiting a typical layered structure with overlapping semi-elliptical scan tracks of the melt pools; (e) and (f) Sample C exhibiting melt pools
with keyholes and residual pores.

Fig. 4. XRD patterns obtained with respect to the top and side faces of an optimally processed cubic FCNAT-HEA sample (VED = 88.89 J/mm3, P = 160 W, v = 1200 mm/s): (a)
full-range patterns; (b) enlargements around the region of the (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) peaks. The pattern presented for the FCNAT-HEA powder in Fig. 1(d) is replicated here for
comparison.

(a) and (d), respectively. Here, the growth direction is represented structure with an average grain size of  20.4 lm is observed along
by color according to the scheme presented in the insets of the fig- the top surface, and the grains have grown preferentially along
ures. As was observed in Fig. 5(b)–(d), an atypical equiaxed grain the h1 0 0i direction. For the 3D- printed sample, the temperature

6
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al. Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326

Fig. 5. OM and BSE-SEM images reflecting the unique microstructures on the top and side surfaces of an optimally processed cubic FCNAT-HEA sample: (a) and (b)–(d) stripe-
like laser tracks along the top surface and equiaxed cellular structures extending over the boundaries between adjacent laser tracks; (e) and (f)–(h) overlapping semi-elliptical
scan tracks along the side surface and epitaxially grown columnar structures transmitted across the boundaries of the melt pools.

Fig. 6. EBSD characterizations of the top and side surfaces of an optimally processed FCNAT-HEA sample: EBSD-IPF maps showing (a) an atypical equiaxed grain structure
along the top surface and (d) a coarse columnar grain structure along the side surface, where the growth directions are represented by color according to the schemes
presented in the insets of the figures; (b) top surface and (e) side surface EBSD grain boundary maps with high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) denoted by the black lines and
low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) denoted by the green lines; (c) top surface and (f) side surface KAM maps indicating the presence of high-density dislocations. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

gradient generated by the 3D-printing process causes the grains to
grow along the direction of the steepest temperature gradient. In
this case, the overall direction of the crystal orientation is generally
normal to the molten-pool boundary, thus the grains usually grow
preferentially along the h1 0 0i direction[42]. In contrast, a coarse
columnar grain structure with obvious isotropic features is
observed along the side surface of the sample, and the growth ori-
entation is nearly random. Noticeably, the coarse columnar grains
have diameters mainly ranging from a few micrometers to tens of
micrometers, and, as was observed in Fig. 5(f)–(h), the grains have
grown along the BD and extended across multiple build layers with
lengths on the order of 100 lm. The corresponding EBSD grain
boundary maps obtained along the top and side surfaces of the
sample are presented in Fig. 6(b) and (e), respectively. These maps
reveal that the cubic sample contained high angle grain boundaries
(HAGBs) with angles h greater than 15° and a high fraction (34 %)

7
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al. Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326

Fig. 7. TEM images of the top and side surfaces of an optimally processed cubic FCNAT-HEA sample: bright-field (BF) TEM images reflecting (a) the cellular structure on the
top surface and (d) the columnar structure on the side surface, where the insets present the corresponding selected area diffraction (SAED) patterns of matrix (A) and
precipitate particles (B); (b) dark-field (DF) TEM image of the top surface and (e) high-angle annular DF (HAADF) TEM image of the side surface revealing high-density L21-
phase precipitates and the presence of dislocation network structures; (c) EDS mapping of the TEM image presented in (b); (f) EDS line scan along the red line in (e) showing
Ti and Al enrichment at the walls of the cellular and columnar structures observed on the top and side surfaces, respectively. (For interpretation of the references to color in
this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

of low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs), where 2°  h  15°, which
are respectively depicted by the black and green lines in the fig-
ures. The corresponding KAM maps obtained for the top and side
surfaces of the sample are presented in Fig. 6(c) and 6(f), respec-
tively. These maps reveal the presence of high local misorientation,
which is denoted by the green coloration in the figures. Accord-
ingly, the cubic sample includes a high density of dislocations,
which can be attributed to the ultrafast cooling rate and severe
thermal stress formed during the SLM process.
The atypical equiaxed grain structure observed on the top
surface and the coarse columnar grain structure observed on
the side surface of the cubic FCNAT-HEA sample were further
evaluated by TEM imaging and corresponding EDS analyses. Rep-
resentative bright-field (BF) TEM images obtained for the top
surface and side surface of the sample are presented in Fig. 7
(a) and (d), respectively, where the insets present the corre-
sponding selected area diffraction (SAED) patterns of the matrix
(A) and precipitate particles (B). The cellular and columnar struc-
tures are quite clearly observable within the corresponding TEM
images of the top and side surfaces, as are the high density of
dislocations. However, the density of dislocations is by far great-
est near the grain boundaries of the cellular and columnar struc-
tures, which suggests the formation of a dislocation network
structure. Similar microstructures have been reported frequently
for other alloy samples formed by AM techniques [22,43–45].
These high-density dislocation networks generated by SLM are
usually formed at high temperatures and have good thermal sta-
bility [14]. Furthermore, the SAED patterns given in the insets
demonstrate the coexistence of the fcc matrix and some irregu-
lar L21-phase precipitates. The dislocation network structure of

Fig. 8. HAADF TEM image of the top surface of an optimally processed cubic FCNAT-HEA sample and the corresponding EDS elemental mapping results showing the presence
of nano-sized particles with relatively high concentrations of Al and O.

8
P. Ji, Z. Wang, Y. Mu et al.
Table 4
Chemical composition (at%) of the nano-sized oxide particles observed in the cubic FCNAT-HEA samples (Fig. 8).
Sample Fe Co
Point 1 23.72 21.99
Point 2 27.51 25.92
Point 3 21.58 20.04
the cubic sample is observed particularly well in the dark-field
(DF) TEM image of the top surface presented in Fig. 7(b) and
the high angle annular DF (HAADF) image of the side surface
presented in Fig. 7(e). Moreover, these images reveal the pres-
ence of a high density of L21-phase precipitates distributed along
the grain boundaries of the cellular and columnar structures
observed in the top and side surfaces. The chemical composi-
tions (at%) of the fcc matrix and L21-phase precipitates are listed
in Table 1. Similar L21-phase precipitates have been reported in
other HEA systems containing Al and Ti [12,46]. Meanwhile,
another study demonstrated that L21-phase precipitates are
harder than the fcc matrix and offer better creep resistance than
the B2 phase [46]. The results of EDS elemental mapping for the
TEM image of the top surface in Fig. 7(b) are presented in Fig. 7
(e) and the EDS line scan results obtained along the red line in
Fig. 7(e) are presented in Fig. 7(f). Interestingly, the grain bound-
aries of both the cellular and columnar structures exhibit condi-
tions of Ti and Al enrichment along with Co, and Ni, and, in
particular, Fe depletion. The formation of a dislocation network
structure with the accompanying segregation of the alloying ele-
ments can be attributed to the unique solidification conditions of
the SLM process. Finally, we note that nano-sized particles were
also observed in the cubic FCNAT-HEA sample, which can be
observed as small spherical regions within the HAADF image of
the top surface presented in Fig. 8. The corresponding EDS ele-
mental mapping and point scan results listed in Table 4 indicate
that these particles are enriched with Al and O. Accordingly, we
can expect that these nano-sized oxide particles were probably
generated during the SLM process.
4. Conclusion
The present study addressed the currently unknown optimal
processing parameters required for fabricating highly dense
FCNAT-HEA components by SLM technology and the microstruc-
tural characteristics of the resulting FCNAT-HEA components by
fabricating cubic (FeCoNi)85.84Al7.09Ti7.07 FCNAT-HEA samples suc-
cessfully by SLM technology for the first time, and then character-
izing the unique layer-by-layer microstructures and chemical
compositions of the optimally fabricated FCNAT-HEA samples sys-
tematically using a variety of imaging and spectroscopy methods.
The experimental results discussed above support the following
main conclusions.
(1) The laser power (P), scanning speed (v), and the resulting
VED value collectively have a decisive influence on the density of
the SLM-fabricated cubic FCNAT-HEA samples. Relative densities
greater than 99 % were obtainable under processing parameter
ranges of 140 W  P  160 W, 1000 mm/s  v  1600 mm/s,
and VED values in the range of 58.33 J/mm3 to 120 J/mm3. Mean-
while, a maximum relative density of  99.95 % was obtained for
P = 160 W, v = 1200 mm/s, and VED = 88.89 J/mm3.
(2) The optimally fabricated cubic FCNAT-HEA sample exhibits
a typical layered microstructure along the BD, and a coarse colum-
nar grain structure with a nearly random growth orientation and
lengths on the order of 100 lm extends along the BD through mul-
tiple build layers. In contrast, the microstructure perpendicular to
the BD exhibits an atypical equiaxed grain structure with an aver-
Materials & Design 224 (2022) 111326
Ni Al Ti O
19.47 13.37 4.70 16.76
22.71 10.12 5.41 8.33
17.58 14.15 4.26 22.39
age grain size of  20.4 lm that grows preferentially along the
h0 0 1i direction. Furthermore, the cubic sample contains a high
fraction (34 %) of LAGBs.
(3) A typical dislocation network structure with the accompa-
nying segregation of elemental Ti and Al are formed near the cellu-
lar and columnar grain boundaries of the cubic FCNAT-HEA block
sample under the high thermal gradient and ultrafast cooling rate
conditions of the SLM process.
(4) High-density L21-phase precipitates with sizes in the range
of 200–300 nm are also distributed within the primary fcc matrix
phase along the cellular and columnar grain boundaries of the
cubic FCNAT-HEA block sample. Some nearly-spherical nano-
sized Al-O oxide particles are also formed in the sample.
Data availability
No data was used for the research described in the article.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the open research fund
of Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (2021SLABFN06), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51971123,
51925103), the Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Educa-
tion Commission (2021-01-07-00-09-E00114), the financial sup-
port from Program 173 (2020-JCIQ-ZD-186-01), 111 project
(D16002) and the Space Utilization System of China Manned Space
Engineering (KJZ-YY-NCL08).
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