Effects of Collisionless and Collisional Plasma Characteristics on the Transport Mechanism of Nitrogen Ions in Nitrided Austenitic Stainless Steel

The collisionless and collisional plasma characteristics can affect the nitrogen diffusivity in the austenitic stainless steel (ASSs) during the ion nitriding process. Hence using the trapping-detrapping model, we investigated and compared the adsorption phenomena on the transport mechanism of nitrogen ions in ASSs in the presence of collisionless and collisional plasmas. Moreover, by plotting the diffused, trapped, and total nitrogen concentrations versus the nitriding depth, it is shown that the plasma characteristics have considerable effects on the nitrided layers, especially in the initial layers. It is also indicated that the ion transport mechanism in the collisional plasma is in good agreement with experimental results.

Automated summary

Using the trapping-detrapping model, we investigated the effects of collisionless and collisional plasmas on the nitrogen diffusivity in austenitic stainless steel. We found that the plasma characteristics have considerable effects on the nitrided layers, especially in the initial layers. Experimental results also showed that the ion transport mechanism in collisional plasma agrees well with the observations.