High - temperature oxidation resistance in yttrium implanted stainless steel

Austenitic AISI 304, 316L and ferritic 430 stainless steels were implanted with yttrium to fluences ranging between 1 x 1015 and 5 x 1017 ions/cm2. The samples were subjected to oxidation in air at a temperature of 1000 centigrade for a period of 100 h and next examined by stereoscopic optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) and Rutherford back scattering spectrometry (RBS). The results obtained with the use of ion implantation are discussed.