The nitrogen concentration profiles, the phase composition and the microhardness of iron and the alloy X5CrNiMo18.10 irradiated with pulses of an excimer laser in a nitrogen atmosphere were studied by means of Resonant Nuclear Reaction Analysis, Conversion Electron Mossbauer Spectros-copy and nanoindentation measurements as a function of the following process parameters: energy density, pulse number and nitrogen gas pressure. A threshold energy density of 1.9(1) J/cm~2 was found in both materials. The nitriding process shows saturation for more than 4 J/cm~2 and 64 pulses. The hardness increases significantly. Furthermore, there is an optimum gas pressure for nitrogen take-up which is dependent on the processed material.
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