Short-range order in the CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy from cluster expansion

We investigate the short-range order (SRO) and phase stability of the equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy using cluster expansion supplemented by an eigen-decomposition analysis of the SRO parameters. Our results reveal that the primary ordering behavior is determined by strong Cr–Cr repulsive interactions, complemented by attractive heteroatomic Cr– X pairs in the first nearest-neighbor shell. This chemical affinity is consistent with the emergence of ordered local environments and appears to be a major contributor to the primary order–disorder transition. At lower temperatures, the spectral SRO analysis suggests two additional lower-temperature instabilities: a collective ordering instability and an Fe-rich local clustering instability.