Single point diamond turning (SPDT) is highly versatile in fabricating axially symmetric form, non-axially-symmetric form and free form surfaces. However, inevitable microstructure known as turning marks left on the surface have limited the mirror’s optical performance. Based on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) mechanism, smoothing polishing (SP) process is believed to be an effective method to remove turning marks. However, the removal efficiency is relatively low. In this paper, based on Greenwood-Williamson (GW) theory, the factors that limit removal efficiency of SP are discussed in details. Influences of process parameters (work pressure and rotational speed) are firstly discussed. With further analysis, surface spectral characteristics are identified as the inherent factor affecting further efficiency improvement. According to theoretical analysis, the removal efficiency of isotropic surface is nearly 1.8 times higher than anisotropy surface like surface with turning marks. A high efficiency turning marks removal process combining ion beam sputtering (IBS) and SP is proposed in our research. With removal depth exceeding 100 nm, the isotropic aluminum surface can be constructed by IBS so that the efficiency of SP process can be greatly improved. Though deteriorated by IBS, the surface roughness will be rapidly reduced by SP process. Finally, experiments are conducted to verify our analysis. A 3.7 nm roughness surface without turning marks is achieved by new method while direct SP can only reach roughness of 4.3 nm with evident turning marks. Experimental results show that removal efficiency nearly doubled which matches well with the theoretical analysis. Our research not only can be used as a high efficiency turning marks removal and surface quality improvement method but also can be a new method for high precision aluminum optics fabrication.

X-ray mirrors are core optical elements in synchrotron light sources, which are typically figured by ion beams. However, traditional ion beam figuring (IBF) methods cannot effectively correct both the height and 2D slope errors. Thus, what we believe to be a novel multi-dimensional error figuring model (MEFM) is proposed to integrate the height and 2D slope errors into a linear system of equations for simultaneous multi-dimensional error convergence. The weight values are determined based on specific manufacturing errors. The simulation results show that MEFM can achieve lower 2D slope and height errors than a single height or 2D slope errors in the figuring method. The power spectral density (PSD) curves before and after simulated figuring demonstrate that the low- and mid-frequency errors are corrected simultaneously. Figuring experiments on a 270 mm × 15 mm X-ray reflector showed that the height and 2D slope errors effectively converged. The results of the PSD curves indicate that MEFM is more effective than the traditional height figuring model in correcting mid-frequency errors, which further proves the validity of the solution model. This study provides an algorithmic reference for the IBF of ultra-high precision X-ray reflectors, thereby promoting the development of physics, medicine, materials, and other fields.

Ultra-smooth surfaces with low contamination and little damage are a great challenge for aluminum optical fabrication. Ion beam sputtering (IBS) has obvious advantages of low contamination and non-contact that make it a perfect method for processing aluminum optics. However, the evolution laws of aluminum surface morphology are quite different from conventional amorphous materials, which affects the roughness change and needs systematic research. Thus, in this paper, the roughness evolution of an aluminum optical surface (i.e., aluminum mirror) subjected to IBS has been studied with experimental and theoretical methods. The surface morphology evolution mechanisms of turning marks and second phase during IBS are revealed. The newly emerging relief morphology and its evolution mechanism are studied in depth. The experimental results find that IBS causes the coarsening of optical surfaces and the appearance of microstructures, leading to the surface quality deterioration. Turning marks have been through the process of deepening and vanish, while second phase generates microstructures on the original surface. The corresponding mechanism is discussed exhaustively. Preferential sputtering, curvature-dependent sputtering and material properties play important roles on surface quality deterioration. A modified roughness evolution mechanism and an improved binary sputtering theory are proposed to describe the polycrystalline sputtering phenomena. The current research can provide a guidance for the application of IBS in aluminum optics manufacture fields.

X-ray mirrors, which are essential for constructing synchrotron radiation light sources, are highly required for full-range spatial wavelength errors. This paper investigated power-law non-Newtonian fluids and pointed out that both three-body removal and shear removal existed in the shear thickening polishing process. Subsequently, this paper calculates the shear force of the power-law non-Newtonian fluid polishing fluid in polishing the surface with different frequency errors. It establishes an MRR model of shear thickening polishing in the frequency domain by combining it with the Archard equation. Then, this model is also applied to optimize the polishing fluid formulation and processing parameters. Finally, the removal effect of the optimized polishing fluid on the mid-frequency ripple error is experimentally verified. On Ф50 mm monocrystalline silicon, the removal of mid-frequency ripple error with a spatial wavelength of 1 mm was achieved by shear thickening polishing technique while converging the surface roughness to 0.14 nm. Finally, the experimental results were applied to monocrystalline silicon with a length of 500 mm. This work provides a new research idea for the existing shear thickening polishing process. It provides theoretical and technical support for removing the mid- and high-frequency errors in high-precision X-ray mirrors.

Aluminum optics are widely used in modern optical systems because of high specific stiffness and high reflectance. Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) provides a highly deterministic technology for high precision aluminum optics fabrication. However, the contamination layer will generate on the surface and bring difficulties for the subsequent processes, which highly limit the fabrication efficiency and precision. In this study, characteristics of the contamination layer and its formation process are firstly revealed through experimental and theoretical methods. Impurities such as abrasives are embedded into the aluminum substrate causing increasing surface hardness. The influence of the contaminant layer on machining accuracy and machining efficiency is analyzed in this study. Based on the analysis, ion beam sputtering (IBS) is induced as a contamination layer modification method. Impurities will be preferential sputtered during the process. Surface hardness and brightness will restore to the state before MRF. Moreover, the thickness of the contamination layer reduces dynamically during IBS because of the bombardment-induced Gibbsian segregation and sputter yield amplification mechanism. Consequently, we proposed a combined technique that includes MRF, IBS and smoothing polishing. Comparative experiments are performed on an elliptical shape plane surface. The results indicate that the efficiency has been increased sevenfold and surface precision is also highly improved. Our research will promote the application of aluminum optics to the visible and even ultraviolet band.