Yukiko Kobayashi

Quantitative analysis of carbon content in cementite in steel by atom probe tomography

Atom probe performance in the quantitative analysis of carbon atoms in steel was investigated through analysis of stoichiometric spherical cementite (Fe(3)C) in steel. The carbon concentration was estimated by determining the mean carbon number of molecular ions having a mass-to-charge ratio of 24. The apparent carbon concentration of cementite increased as the specimen temperature decreased, and it was several at% higher than the stoichiometric value (25 at%) under the preferable condition of low specimen temperature. On the other hand, the apparent carbon concentration was not changed by pulse fraction. These results indicate that the large deviation from the stoichiometric value did not arise from the preferential retention and evaporation between carbon and iron. The other mechanisms explaining the phenomenon have been discussed.

Anomalous distribution in atom map of solute carbon in steel

The distribution of carbon in atom probe tomography maps was investigated in various phases of steel. Carbon atoms in 3D atom maps of martensite and cementite phases showed an almost uniform distribution. On the other hand, carbon atoms in ferrite were consistently enriched along the zone line joining the (0 0 2) and the (2 2 2) poles, and in the depth direction of analysis, which was different from the actual distribution. The width and concentration of the enriched regions remained unchanged at a specimen temperature ranging from 90 to 30K. Moreover, the ratio of molecular carbon ions to total carbon ions decreased with decreasing temperature, but did not change between the enriched and diluted regions. Based on the results, the reason for the anomalous distribution of solute carbon atoms in atom maps is discussed.

Nanoscale characterisation of rolling contact wear surface of pearlitic steel

Abstract Nanoscale characterisation of a rolling–sliding wear surface layer of pearlitic steel was performed with transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography to reveal microstructural changes in the pearlite structure. Plastically deformed fine pearlitic lamellae with interlamellar spacing of ∼10 nm were observed just beneath the contact surface after the rolling–sliding wear test, where the hardness of the surface reached >800 HV, twice the initial bulk hardness of 400 HV. Lamellar cementite was slightly decomposed, but most lamellar cementite was retained as thinned lamellae in the deformed pearlitic structure. The large increment in hardness was mostly explained by the reduction in interlamellar spacing. The formation mechanism of the microstructure of the worn surface was compared with that of the white etching layer on the pearlitic rail surface.

In situ determination of misorientation angle of grain boundary by field ion microscopy analysis

We proposed an advanced analysis technique for characterizing a grain boundary using field ion microscopy (FIM) for atom probe analysis. The technique enables quick and precise estimation of the misorientation angle of the grain boundary by matching the calculated crystallographic pole positions with the actual FIM image including the grain boundary. We investigated the accuracy in estimation of the misorientation angle using target grain boundaries which had been analyzed by electron backscatter diffraction pattern (EBSD) analysis. From the comparison between EBSD and FIM analyses, we found that the technique enables the determination of the misorientation angle with a high accuracy of ± 0.4°, which is comparable with that achieved by EBSD.