Toward excellent tensile properties of nitrogen-doped CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy at room and cryogenic temperatures

•The addition of nitrogen to an equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi alloy changes the precipitate from σ to Cr2N.•The presence of precipitates leads to grain refinement due to the Zener pinning effect.•The strengthening induced by grain boundary and precipitaton contributes to the high yield strength of the alloy.•The substantial strain hardening of the alloy is achieved by planar dislocations, stacking faults, and deformation twins.•The strong temperatuere dependence of yield strength of the alloy is attributed to the short-range thermal obstacles.