Materials Science and Technology of Optical Fabrication

COVERS THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE OF GRINDING AND POLISHING BY EXAMINING THE CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL INTERACTIONS OVER MANY SCALE LENGTHS Manufacturing next generation optics has been, and will continue to be, an enabler for enhancing the performance of advanced laser, imaging, and spectroscopy systems. This book reexamines the age-old field of optical fabrication from a materials-science perspective, specifically the multiple, complex interactions between the workpiece (optic), slurry, and lap. It also describes novel characterization and fabrication techniques to improve and better understand the optical fabrication process, ultimately leading to higher quality optics with higher yield. Materials Science and Technology of Optical Fabrication is divided into two major parts. The first part describes the phenomena and corresponding process parameters affecting both the grinding and polishing processes during optical fabrication. It then relates them to the critical resulting properties of the optic (surface quality, surface figure, surface roughness, and material removal rate). The second part of the book covers a number of related topics including: developed forensic tools used to increase yield of optics with respect to surface quality (scratch/dig) and fracture loss; novel characterization and fabrication techniques used to understand/quantify the fundamental phenomena described in the first part of the book; novel and recent optical fabrication processes and their connection with the fundamental interactions; and finally, special techniques utilized to fabricate optics with high laser damage resistance. Focuses on the fundamentals of grinding and polishing, from a materials science viewpoint, by studying the chemical and mechanical interactions/phenomena over many…