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Impact of thermal excitations on the stabilization of the disordered VCoNi alloy

Fritz Körmann1,2,*, Axel Forslund3,†, Yuji Ikeda3, Aditya Srinivasan Tirunilai4, Guillaume Laplanche4, Marie Münchhalfen5, Jürgen Schreuer5, Jörg Neugebauer2, and Blazej Grabowski3

  • *Contact author: fritz.koermann@rub.de
  • †Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm SE-10044, Sweden.
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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 023604 – Published 24 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9vbd-xqtn

Abstract

The VCoNi alloy is a face-centered cubic medium-entropy alloy with exceptionally high yield strength, serving as a prototypical system for investigating short-range order and phase stability in compositionally complex alloys. However, density functional theory calculations underestimate the stability of the random solid solution by several hundred Kelvin. To resolve this discrepancy, we present accurate Gibbs energy calculations for both the random solid solution and a prototypical L12 ordered phase. Our findings reveal that vibrational and electronic excitations account for nearly half of the entropy difference between the ordered phase and disordered solid solution. These factors reduce the energy difference between the two phases by about one-third and help stabilize the solid solution. Our thermodynamic analysis is validated through direct comparison with experimental thermodynamic data.

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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 023604– Published 24 February, 2026
  • Received 22 December 2025
  • Accepted 4 February 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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