• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.157-158
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• 2002

A surface hardenable low alloy carbon steel was implanted with medium energy (20 - 50KeV) $N_2^+$ ions to produced a modified hardened surface. The implantation conditions were varied and are given in several doses. The surface hardness of treated and untreated steels were measured using depth sensing ultra micro indentation system (UMIS). It is shown that the hardness of nitrogen ion implanted steels varied from 20 to 50GPa depending on the implantation conditions and the doses of implantation. The structure of the modified surfaces was examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that the high hardness on the implanted surfaces was as a result of formation of non-equilibrium nitrides. High-resolution XPS studies indicated that the nitride formers were essentially C and Si from the alloy steel. The result suggests that the ion implantation provided the conditions for a preferential formation of C and Si nitrides. The combination of evidences from nano-indentation and XPS, provided a strong evidence for the existence of $sp^3$ type of bonding in a suspected $(C,Si)_xN_y$ stoichiometry. The formation of ultra hard surface from relatively cheap low alloy steel has significant implication for wear resistance implanted low alloy steels.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.701-705
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• 2007

The incorporation of N in a-C film is able to improve the friction coefficient and the adhesion to various substrates. In this study, a-C:N films were deposited on Si and steel substrates by closed-field unbalanced magnetron (CFUBM) sputtering system in $Ar/N_2$ plasma. The lubricant characteristics was investigated for a-C:N deposited with total working pressure from 4 to 7 mTorr. We obtained high hardness up to 24GPa, friction coefficient lower than 0.1 and the smooth surface of having the extremely low roughness (0.16 nm). The physcial properties of a-C:N thin film are related to the increase of cross-linked $sp^2$ bonding clusters in the film. However, the decrease of hardness, elastic modulus and the increase of surface roughness, friction coefficient with the increase of $N_2$ partial pressrue might be due to the effect of energetic ions as a result of the increase of ion bombardment with the increase of ion density in the plasma.