Structure of nitride layer formed on titanium alloy surface by N-gas exposure at high temperatures

Takeda, Yusuke; Iida, Kiyoshi*; Sato, Shinji*; Matsuo, Tadatoshi*; Nagashima, Yasuyuki*; Okubo, Nariaki   ; Kondo, Keietsu  ; Hirade, Tetsuya  

Titanium alloy is widely used for applications such as golf club heads and structural materials for aircrafts. The surface can be exceedingly hardened by nitriding treatment that initiates defects, but there are some difficulties on use of titanium nitride because the layer can be exfoliated by stress. Therefore, we prepared samples in two different treatment conditions, (1) 810C 600 min and (2) 850C 720 min and performed depth profile analysis of Doppler broadening of positron annihilation -rays (DB) for these samples. According to a calculation of nitrogen diffusion depth, the nitride layer should be only about 0.05-0.1m. However, the depth profile analysis of the DB measurement indicated that the defects introduced by nitriding treatment extended to a depth of 0.5m.