Tool steel ion beam assisted nitrocarburization

The nitrocarburization of the AISI-H13 tool steel by ion beam assisted deposition is reported. In this technique, a carbon film is continuously deposited over the sample by the ion beam sputtering of a carbon target while a second ion source is used to bombard the sample with low energy nitrogen ions. The results show that the presence of carbon has an important impact on the crystalline and microstructural properties of the material without modification of the case depth.