X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization of high dose carbon-implanted steel and titanium alloys

A study has been made of the depth dependence of the atomic fraction and chemical bonding states of AISI 440C martensitic stainless steel and Ti-6Al-4V alloy implanted with 75 keV C ⁺ at very high doses (above 10 ¹⁸ ions cm ^-2 ), by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy combined with an Ar ⁺ sputtering. A Gaussian-like carbon distribution was observed on both materials at the lowest implanted dose. More trapezoidal carbon depth-profiles were found with increasing implanted doses, and a pure carbon layer was observed only on the titanium alloy implanted at the highest dose. The implanted carbon was combined with both base metal and carbon itself to form metallic carbides and graphitic carbon. Furthermore, carbon-enriched carbides were also found by curve fitting the C 1s spectra. The titanium alloy showed a higher carbidic contribution than the steel implanted at the same C ⁺ doses. A critical carbon concentrations of about 33 at.% and 23 at.% were measured for the formation of C-C bonds in Ti-6Al-4V and steel samples, respectively. The carbon atoms were bound with metal to form carbidic compounds until these critical concentrations were reached; when this C concentration was exceeded the proportion of C-C bonds increased and resulted in the growth of carbonaceous layers.