Sliding Wear Characteristics of Ion Implanted AlN

Abstract

Surfaces of AlN ceramics were modified by Ar and N ion beams generated from a bucket-type ion gun, and the sliding wear characteristics in a vacuum were investigated.
According to SEM observation of machined AlN surface before and after wear tests, it was found that wear debris was formed by the breaking off of the plastic flow layer that was deformed around the depressions made by machining during machining and sliding.
The plastic flow layer on the machined AlN surface was removed by Ar ion beam sputtering at an energy of 10keV and an incident angle θ of 70°. After which, N ions were implanted at an incident angle θ of 0°.
In wear tests where the sliding distance was 10μm in a vacuum, the amount of wear debris from the AlN was markedly reduced by N ion implantation after sputtering with an Ar ion beam.