Comparability and accuracy of nitrogen depth profiling in nitrided austenitic stainless steel

A comparative study of nitrogen depth profiles in low energy ion implantation nitrided austenitic stainless steel 1.4301 by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) is presented. All methods require calibration either from reference samples or known scattering or reaction cross sections for the nitrogen concentration, while the methods producing a sputter crater - SIMS and GDOES - need additional conversion from sputter time to depth. NRA requires an assumption of material density for a correct conversion from the 'natural' units inherent to all ion beam analysis methods into 'conventional' depth units. It is shown that a reasonable agreement of the absolute concentrations and very good agreement of the layer thickness is obtained. The observed differences in broadening between the nitrogen distribution near the surface and the deeper region of the nitrided layer-steel interface are discussed on the basis of surface contaminations, surface roughening and energy straggling effects.