Smoothing of fused silica with less damage by a hybrid plasma process combining isotropic etching and atom-migration

Liang, Shaoxiang1; He, Yi1; Ding, Pengbo1; Wang, Chunjin2; Guo, Liang1; Deng, Hui1,3

2023-10-01

10.1016/j.surfin.2023.103191

SURFACES AND INTERFACES   Impact Factor & Quartile

2468-0230

In order to effectively reduce the subsurface damage of fused silica optics and obtain an ultra-smooth surface at atomic scale, we proposed a hybrid manufacturing process based on inductively coupled plasma (ICP), which combined isotropic etching polishing (IEP) and atom-migration manufacturing (AMM). In the plasma-IEP process, a large number of isotropic etching pits with ultra-smooth inner surface formed, enlarged, overlapped and merged, resulting in a smooth surface. The continuous downward etching process was accompanied by the continuous removal of the subsurface damage layer. With optimized process parameters, plasma-IEP could efficiently generate a less damage surface of fused silica with a material removal rate of 0.8 pm/min, and reduce the Sa roughness from 97.1 nm to 31.3 nm. The surface roughness could be further reduced to less than 0.15 nm by plasma-AMM, which was a non-subtractive finishing approach. The result of laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) test showed that the fused silica surface after the IEP-AMM hybrid manufacturing could withstand higher laser fluence, which implied more effective applications of this technique in high-power laser systems. This study proposed and verified the hybrid plasma manufacturing process combining plasma-IEP and plasma-AMM, which provided an ultra-smooth surface with less damage manufacturing process for fused silica.

Atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing Plasma etching Atom migration Sub-surface damage Roughness

SCI

English

First ; Corresponding

Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province[2023A1515011461] ; Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality["JCYJ20220818100412027","JCYJ20210324120402007"]

Chemistry ; Materials Science ; Physics

Chemistry, Physical ; Materials Science, Coatings & Films ; Physics, Applied ; Physics, Condensed Matter

WOS:001060409300001

ELSEVIER

Web of Science

1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Mech & Energy Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China
2.Hong Kong Polytech Univ, Dept Ind & Syst Engn, State Key Lab Ultraprecis Machining Technol, Hung Hom,Kowloon, Hong Kong, Peoples R China
3.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Inst Appl Opt & Precis Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China

Liang, Shaoxiang,He, Yi,Ding, Pengbo,et al. Smoothing of fused silica with less damage by a hybrid plasma process combining isotropic etching and atom-migration[J]. SURFACES AND INTERFACES,2023,41.

Liang, Shaoxiang,He, Yi,Ding, Pengbo,Wang, Chunjin,Guo, Liang,&Deng, Hui.(2023).Smoothing of fused silica with less damage by a hybrid plasma process combining isotropic etching and atom-migration.SURFACES AND INTERFACES,41.

Liang, Shaoxiang,et al."Smoothing of fused silica with less damage by a hybrid plasma process combining isotropic etching and atom-migration".SURFACES AND INTERFACES 41(2023).