Research from this thesis is published as Wei Li, Xiaoying Li, Hanshan Dong, Effect of tensile stress on the formation of S-phase during low-temperature plasma carburizing of 316L foil Acta Materialia, Volume 59, Issue 14, August 2011, Pages 5765-5774, ISSN 1359-6454, DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2011.05.053. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359645411003934