Nitridation of high speed steel by electron cyclotron resonance plasma

Abstract

Plasma nitridation of high speed M2 steel is studied using a microwave assisted electron cyclotron resonance plasma source. A mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen with a proportion of 7 : 3 was used as the nitriding gas. The density of plasma for this forming gas was measured to be ∼10 18 m −3 as estimated by a double probe method. The M2 steel was nitrided at various temperatures of 400, 450, 500 and 550 • C under similar reactor conditions. The nitrided layer was characterized by using various analytical techniques which included structural, morphological, chemical and microhardness measurement. The maximum thickness of the nitrided layer was found to be 48 µm for samples nitrided at 550 • C. No layer corresponding to white/compound layer is seen in our analysis. The hardness is seen to increase from ∼580 HV to ∼1190 HV for samples nitrided at 550 • C. Electron cyclotron resonance plasma nitridation is observed to be much faster and a cleaner process as compared with the conventional nitriding process.

ECR plasma assisted deposition of zinc nanowires

“…[12][13][14] apart from extensive reviews for plasma based deposition by Ostrikov and Murphy [15,16] and other depositions [17][18][19]. Microwave assisted ECR low pressure plasmas are popularly used for depositing and processing of thin films and surfaces [20,21].…”

“…There are only a few reports on its applications for depositing nanoparticles and one dimensional structures. [12,13,14].Microwave assisted Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) low pressure plasma is one of these which is very popularly used for depositing and processing of thin films and surfaces [15,16].…”