Investigation of micro-structure and micro-hardness properties of 304L stainless steel treated in a hot cathode arc discharge plasma

We have established a hot cathode arc discharge plasma system, where different stainless steel samples can be treated by monitoring the plasma parameters and nitriding parameters independently. In the present work, a mixture of 70% N2 and 30% H2 gases was fed into the plasma chamber and the treatment time and substrate temperature were optimized for treating 304L Stainless Steel samples. Various physical techniques such as x-ray diffraction, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and micro-vickers hardness tester were employed to determine the structural, surface composition and surface hardness of the treated samples.