Efficient fabrication of ultrasmooth and defect-free quartz glass surface by hydrodynamic effect polishing combined...

Material removal rate has greatly relied on the distribution of shear stress and dynamic pressure on the workpiece surface in hydrodynamic effect polishing (HEP). Fluid dynamic simulation results demonstrate that the higher rotation speed and smaller clearance will cause the larger material removal rate. Molecular dynamic (MD) calculations show the bonding energy of Si-O in the silicon-oxide nanoparticle is stronger than that in the quartz glass, and therefore the atoms can be dragged away from the quartz glass surface by the adsorbed silicon-oxide nanoparticle. The deep subsurface damage cannot be efficiently removed by HEP due to its extremely low removal rate. However, the subsurface damaged layer can be quickly removed by ion beam figuring (IBF), and a thinner layer containing the passivated scratches and pits will be left on the surface. The passivated layer is so thin that can be easily removed by HEP process with a low material rate under the large wheel-workpiece clearance. Combined with the IBF process, the subsurface damage and surface scratches have been efficiently removed after the HEP process. Meanwhile there are not obvious duplicated marks on the processed surface and the surface roughness has been improved to 0.130nm rms, 0.103nm Ra.