Influence of Surface Nanocrystallization on Ti Ion Implantation of Pure Iron

In order to increase the depth or concentration of Ti ion implantation of pure iron, the surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT), which can fabricate a nanometer-grained surface layer without porosity and contamination in a pure iron plate, was used before ion implantation. Ti ion was implanted into the SMA treated sample and coarse-grained counterpart by using a metal vapor vacuum arc source implanter. The changing of depth and concentration of Ti was studied in a function of implantation time. By optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, the grain size of the nano structured surface was studied. Micro-hardness, friction and wear behavior of nano surface layers were studied. By energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy, the chemical composition and concentration of Ti ion in the surface implantation layer were studied. Experimental results showed that the concentration of Ti increased dramatically compared with untreated coarse-grained samples, which is attributed to the existence of higher density of defects (supersaturated vacancies, dislocations, non-equilibrium grain boundaries etc.) and compression stress field in the SMA treated nanocrystallined surface layer. The interaction between the defects and the implanted solute atoms leads to the increment of solid solubility. But the implantation depth showed inconspicuous change. It is shown that the ion range is just relevant to the energy and mass of the ion, dose of injection, the mass and density of target material.