Temperature dependence of nitrogen diffusion in single crystalline austenitic stainless steel during ion beam nitriding

Temperature dependence of the nitrogen diffusion coefficient in the expanded austenite γN of single crystalline austenitic stainless steel (ASS) during ion beam nitriding is investigated. Single crystalline [orientations (001), (110) and (111)] AISI 316L ASS samples have been ion beam nitrided in the temperature range of 370-430 °C for 60 min with an ion acceleration voltage of 1 keV and a current density of 0.5 mA cm−2. The N depth distribution profiles have been determined by means of nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), while the N diffusion coefficients D have been extracted by fitting the NRA profiles with the “trapping-detrapping” model. The results show that the nitrogen diffusivity strongly depends on the single crystal orientation in the sequence D001>D011>D111. These differences are not related to the activation energy which is similar for all three orientations, but to the diffusion coefficient exponential pre-factor D0 whose value varies by 3 orders of magnitude depending on the orientation. The results are discussed on the basis of ion irradiation effects such as defects and vibrational lattice excitations.