Some Temperature Effects on AISI-304 Nitriding in an Inductively Coupled RF Plasma.

Some recent results obtained from nitriding AISI 304 stainless steel samples, 1.2 cm in diameter and 0.5 cm thick are reported here in the case of an 85% hydrogen and 15% nitrogen mixture work gas. The process was carried out from 300 to 400 W for (13.56 MHz) inductively coupled plasma within a 60 cm long pyrex glass tube 3.5 cm in diameter where the samples were biased up to -300 V with respect to earth. The resulting hardness appears to be a function of the substrate temperature which varied from 200 °C at a 0 V bias to 550 °C at -300 V. The plasma density at 400 W reached 3×1010 cm-3 with a 4 eV electron temperature. Prior to nitriding, all the samples were polished with 0.05 μm diamond paste, leading to a 30 nm average roughness (Ra). After nitriding at -300 V, the Ra rose until ∼400 nm while hardness values of 1500 HV under 300 g loads were measured. X ray diffraction indicates that the extended phase amplitude (γN), Fe and Cr nitride depends on the substrate temperature. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]