Study of Cr-N bonding in nitrided stainless steel coatings by low-energy electron induced X-ray spectroscopy (LEEIXS)

Thin nitrided stainless steel coatings (400'500 nm) were deposited onto polished low carbon steel substrates by magnetron sputtering in a reactive atmosphere of argon'nitrogen mixture. A series of coatings were deposited with a total gas-flow constant while increasing nitrogen proportion. The nitrogen content which was determined by nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) was found to increase with increasing N2 flow-rate. The chemical bond between chromium and nitrogen was controlled by low-energy electron induced X-ray spectroscopy (LEEIXS) with a wavelength dispersive spectrometer equipped with a TlAP crystal (2d=2.576 nm). The low-energy sub-band generated by the bonding between chromium and nitrogen allow us to determine the proportion of nitrogen contained in the coatings.