Comparative micromagnetic and Mössbauer spectroscopic depth profile analysis of laserhardened steel X210Cr12

Nondestructive magnetic testing by magnetic Barkhausen noise and incremental permeability is applied to study the transformation of microstructure of a commercial X210Cr12 steel submitted to laser irradiation. Magnetic quantities are derived to determine the variations of the martensite and retained austenite content observed up to 2 mm in depth to the laser treated surface. Conversion x-ray-Mössbauer measurements in backscattering technique (CXMS) are performed to get an exact phase analysis, including information about phase formation. The magnetic and Mössbauer results are compared in connection with Vickers hardness and metallographic data.