A plastic deformation surface layer with nanocrystalline grains was produced on AISI 321 austenitic stainless steel by means of surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT). Low-temperature nitriding of SMAT and un-SMAT AISI 321 stainless steel was carried out in pulsed-DC glow discharge. The effect of SMAT pretreatment on the microstructure and properties of the stainless steel were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Vickers hardness tester and UNIT-2MT tribometer. The results show that the plasma nitriding of AISI 321 steel can be enhanced considerably by means of SMAT process before nitriding, and a much thicker nitrogen diffusion layer with higher hardness was obtained for the SMAT samples when compared with unSMAT samples. In addition, the wear resistance and load capacity of the nitrided layers on the SMAT samples was much higher than that of the un-SMAT samples due to the thicker S phase case and the gradient nitrogen diffusion layer. (c) 2006 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.