Magnesium nitride phase formation by means of ion beam implantation technique

Nitrogen implantation technique (Hardion+) has been applied in order to modify the surface properties of magnesium and Mg-based alloys (AM50, AZ31). Nitrogen ions with an energy of approximately 100 keV were used to form the Mg3N2 phase leading to improved surface properties. The samples were investigated using various characterization methods. Mechanical properties have been tested by means of nanoindention, the electrochemical behavior was measured by potentiodynamic polarization and impedance spectroscopy, phase formation by using grazing incidence Xray diffraction, the chemical state was determined by means of Xray induced photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and depth profiling by using secondary ions mass spectroscopy (SIMS). Additionally, the results were compared to calculated depth profiles using SRIM2008. The correlation of the results shows the nitride formation behavior to a depth of about 600 nm.