Nitrogen diffusion is investigated in single crystalline austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L during ion beam nitriding and subsequent annealing at three different crystalline orientations. After nitriding at 400 °C and ion energy of 1 keV, the N penetration depth depends significantly on the crystalline orientation, with the highest penetration depth for (001) orientation. The experimental observations are quantitatively reproduced by fitting using the model of diffusion under the influence of traps. During subsequent isothermal annealing, the N diffusion becomes significantly slower than during nitriding and independent of the orientation. Possible mechanisms of the anisotropic ion-enhanced N diffusion are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.