Residual stress in nano-structured stainless steel (AISI 316L) prompted by Xe+ ion bombardment at different impinging angles

Abstract

The effect of low energy (<1 keV) xenon (Xe+) ion bombardment on the residual stress of polycrystalline iron alloy (AISI 316L steel) is reported. The results take into account the influence of the ion incident angle maintaining constant all other bombarding parameters (i.e., ion energy and current density, temperature, and doses). The bombarded surface topography shows that ions prompt the formation of nanometric regular patterns on the surface crystalline grains and stressing the structure. The paper focalizes on the study of the surface residual stress state stemming from the ion bombardment studied by means of the “sin2 ψ” and “Universal Plot” methods. The analysis shows the absence of shear stress in the affected material region and the presence of compressive in-plane residual biaxial stress (∼200 MPa) expanding up to ∼1 μm depth for all the studied samples. Samples under oblique bombardment present higher compressive stress values in the direction of the projected ion beam on the bombarded surface. The absolute value of the biaxial surface stress difference (σ11-σ22) increases on ion impinging angles, a phenomenon associated with the momentum transfer by the ions. The highest stress level was measured for ion impinging angles of 45° (σ11 = −380 ± 10 MPa and σ22 = −320 ± 10 MPa). The different stresses obtained in the studied samples do not affect significantly the formation of characteristic surface patterns.