Development of a two-degree-of-freedom vibration generator for fabricating optical microstructure arrays

Optical microstructure arrays on metallic surfaces are drawing ever-increasing attention due to the increasing requirements in optical systems. Although vibration generators are developed for generating optical microarrays with the ultra-precision diamond cutting process, the systematic research works on its mechanical design, working performance simulation, and numerical simulation of microstructure arrays has received less attention. In this study, a novel two-degree-of-freedom vibration generator (2DOF-VG) is designed based on the triangular amplification mechanism. To precisely simulate the working performance of this designed 2DOF-VG, the detailed multi-physics finite element method is proposed. Considering the three-dimensional geometric shape of the cutting tool, the cutting motion trajectory, and the elastic recovery of the workpiece material, the numerical simulation algorithm of the microstructure arrays generation is then established and used to precisely predict the surface topography of microstructure arrays. Finally, two types of unique microstructure arrays are fabricated, which demonstrates the feasibility and flexibility of the 2DOF-VG.