AISI 5140 steel nitriding in a plasma of a non-self-sustaining arc discharge with a thermionic cathode under the pulse action of ions

Abstract

Steel AISI 5140 was exposed to pulsed (50 kHz) low-energy (up to 1 kV) nitriding in the plasma of a non-self-sustained arc discharge with a hot hollow cathode in a pure nitrogen atmosphere. The aim was to investigate the effect of the ion energy (pulse amplitude) and ion current density on the nitride layer thickness and on the depth of diffusion saturation with nitrogen. Experiments were also performed to study the effect of the ion energy and ion current density on the efficiency of nitriding at a constant specimen temperature and constant process time.