Boron implantation into AISI 52100 steel

Abstract A 52100 steel substrate was implanted at room temperature with 11 B ions of 20, 35 and 50 keV energy at low (5 × 10 16 ions cm -2 ) and high (2 × 10 17 ions cm -2 ) fluences. Nuclear backscattering spectrometry using the 11 B(γ,γ') reaction at 6.04 MeV was used to determine the boron distribution profiles. Conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy was used to analyse the physicochemical alterations of the surface. The high fluence leads to amorphization of the surface. However, the hyperfine field distributions give some indications of the local environment of iron atoms in the perturbed surface. Fe 2 B, Fe 3 B and Fe 1- x B x phases are distinguished. A small amount of bismuth implanted in front of the boron distribution will act as a tracer for quantifying the alteration in wear produced by boron implantation of 52100 ball bearings. The wear machine is described and some preliminary results are given.