Nitriding of stainless steel:: PIII or low energy nitriding?

Both plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) and low energy implantation (LEI) of nitrogen into austenitic stainless steel lead to the formation of a very hard and wear resistant surface layer, expanded austenite. Heat balance and particle flux measurements were performed and compared with simulations to obtain the global and local temperature variations as a function or the particle and heat flux. Comparing PIII and LEI within the same UHV vacuum system, and on the same substrate holder shows that similar diffusion, hardness and wear are observed; only the lattice expansion is larger for the case of PIII than for LEI.