Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Determining Tribocorrosion Rate and Wear-Corrosion Synergy of Bulk and Thin Film Aluminum Alloys
Published on: September 11, 2018
Low-frequency conductivity of low wear high-entropy alloys
Cheng-Hsien Yeh1, Wen-Dung Hsu2,3,4, Bernard Haochih Liu5,6
1Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan.
Abstract:
High-entropy alloys (HEAs) provide new research avenues for alloy combinations in the periodic table, opening numerous possibilities in novel-alloy applications. However, their electrical characteristics have been relatively underexplored. The challenge in establishing an HEA electrical conductivity model lies in the changes in electronic characteristics caused by lattice distortion and complexity of nanostructures. Here we show a low-frequency electrical conductivity model for the Nb-Mo-Ta-W HEA system. The cocktail effect is found to explain trends in electrical-conductivity changes in HEAs, while the magnitude of the reduction is understood by the calculated plasma frequency, free electron density, and measured relaxation time by terahertz spectroscopy. As a result, the refractory HEA Nb15Mo35Ta15W35 thin film exhibits both high hardness and excellent conductivity. This combination of Nb15Mo35Ta15W35 makes it suitable for applications in atomic force microscopy probe coating, significantly improving their wear resistance and atomic-scale image resolution.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Fatigue
Theory of Metallic Conduction
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...
Metallic Solids
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability....
Trends in Lattice Energy: Ion Size and Charge
Semiconductors
Metals such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), or lead (Pb) have low resistivity and feature conduction bands that are either not fully occupied or overlap with the valence band, making a bandgap non-existent. This allows electrons in the highest energy levels of the valence band to easily transition to the conduction band upon gaining...
Hooke's Law

