Float polishing of optical materials

• DOI: 10.1364/ao.26.000696
• Publication Date: 2009-03-19T14:54:57Z
• Authors: Jean M. Bennett; Joseph J. Shaffer; Yukio Shibano; Yoshiharu Namba
• Keywords: Float glass; Optical materials; Crystal (programming language); Fused quartz

The float-polishing technique has been studied to determine its suitability for producing supersmooth surfaces on optical materials, yielding a roughness of <2 Å rms. An attempt was made polish six different materials including fused quartz, Zerodur, and sapphire. low surface achieved Corning experimental glass-ceramic <1 rms obtained O-cut single-crystal Presumably, similar finishes can also be Cer-Vit ULE which could not polished satisfactorily in this set experiments because mismatch between sample mounting machine configuration.