A new approach to metal surface nitriding using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma at atmospheric pressure is presented in this paper. Results of the study show that the plasma nitriding at atmospheric pressure using DBDs is realizable. Harder and thicker compound layer and diffusion layer on the treated surface has been formed in shorter treatment time comparing with the conventional vacuum plasma nitriding, Increasing the applied voltage will facilitate the formation of a thicker nitrided layer using the DBD. The nitrided layer acquired by this new approach is mainly composed of epsilon phase and gamma' phase, and the crystal grains of the epsilon phase is fine and has high dislocations density.