SURFACE MODIFICATION OF STAINLESS STEEL SHEETS BY MeV ION IMPLANTATION

Several different species of ions, Au, Fe, Ag, Ti and Si, were implanted into austenite stainless steel sheets at an energy of 3 MeV respectively. The martensite transformation induced with the ion implantation was investigated with transmission electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The residual stresses induced with ion implantation were evaluated by the curvature technique. The effects of irradiation doses and ion species on the residual stress near surface induced by ion implantation were investigated. It is found that compressive residual stresses were induced by all the ions, and Fe and Au ions, among these ions, produced a higher level of residual stress at the same implantation. It shows that ion implantation can be employed to control and modify the internal stress near surface by changing the irradiation dose and selecting ion specie of the ion implantation.