Hardening of Nickel Alloys by Ion Implantation of Titanium and Carbon

Abstract

AbstractDual ion implantation of titanium and carbon was shown to produce an amorphous surface layer in annealed bulk nickel, in electroformed Ni, and in electroformed Ni7 5Fe 2 5. Diamond-tip nanoindentation coupled with finite-element modeling quantified the elastic and plastic mechanical properties of the implanted region. The amorphized matrix, with a thickness of about 100 nm, has a yield stress of approximately 6 GP and an intrinsic hardness near 16 GPa, exceeding by an order of magnitude the corresponding values for annealed bulk Ni. Implications for micro-electromechanical systems are discussed.