A. Faussemagne et A. Benyagoub, EVIDENCE FOR A STRONG CORRELATION BETWEEN THE AMOUNT OF SURFACE CARBON AND THE TRIBOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF ION-TREATED STEELS, Europhysics letters, 41(4), 1998, pp. 449-454
Samples of 100Cr6-bearing steel were treated by different ion beams in
order to study the evolution of their tribological properties. Comple
mentary physico-chemical characterisation techniques give evidence for
a strong correlation between the amount of surface carbon, whatever i
ts origin (contamination, direct C implantation or ion beam mixing of
a deposited carbon layer), and the reduction of the friction coefficie
nt as well as the increase of the wear resistance. It is found that th
e friction coefficient is improved by a factor 5 and the wear volume b
y two orders of magnitude when the amount of surface carbon exceeds 10
(17) C cm(-2).