Deviation from high-entropy configurations in the atomic distributions of a multi-principal-element alloy

potential for producing exceptional engineering materials, often known as ‘high-entropy alloys’. Understanding the elemental distribution, and, thus, the evolution of the configurational entropy during solidification, is undertaken in the present study using the Al1.3CoCrCuFeNi model alloy. Here we show that, even when the material undergoes elemental segregation, precipitation, chemical ordering and spinodal decomposition, a significant amount of disorder remains, due to the distributions of multiple elements in the major phases. The results suggest that the high-entropy alloy-design strategy may be applied to a wide range of complex materials, and should not be limited to the goal of creating single-phase solid solutions.