Open AccessMicroscopic morphology evolution during ion beam smoothing of Zerodur^® surfaces
Author(s) -
Wenlin Liao,
Yifan Dai,
Xuhui Xie,
Lin Zhou
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.000377
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , sputtering , ion beam , surface roughness , smoothing , surface finish , focused ion beam , ion , beam (structure) , thin film , nanotechnology , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , computer vision
Ion sputtering of Zerodur material often results in the formation of nanoscale microstructures on the surfaces, which seriously influences optical surface quality. In this paper, we describe the microscopic morphology evolution during ion sputtering of Zerodur surfaces through experimental researches and theoretical analysis, which shows that preferential sputtering together with curvature-dependent sputtering overcomes ion-induced smoothing mechanisms leading to granular nanopatterns formation in morphology and the coarsening of the surface. Consequently, we propose a new method for ion beam smoothing (IBS) of Zerodur optics assisted by deterministic ion beam material adding (IBA) technology. With this method, Zerodur optics with surface roughness down to 0.15 nm root mean square (RMS) level is obtained through the experimental investigation, which demonstrates the feasibility of our proposed method.