Carbonitride precipitation by successive implantation of carbon and nitrogen into pure iron

Abstract

Conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to investigate the precipitation of carbonitrides by successive implantation of carbon and nitrogen into pure iron. The authors have analysed two samples, differing by the order of implantation of the two ionic species. Although the as-implanted surface compositions are rather different, thermal annealing of both samples at 300 degrees C results in the formation of the same kind of precipitate, namely epsilon -Fe3(C,N).