MANUFACTURING OF AN OPTICAL QUALITY MIRROR SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE OPTICS

摘要

Manufacturing of optical quality micromachined deformable mirrors for use in adaptive optic (AO) correction is described. Several non-standard manufacturing techniques have been developed to improve optical quality of surface micromachined mirrors. Two challenges to manufacturing optical quality micromachined mirrors are reducing surface roughness and increasing reflectivity. A chemo-mechanical polishing process has been used to improve surface quality of the mirrors, and a gold coating process has been developed to improve the reflectivity without introducing a significant amount of stress in the mirror membrane. Surface reflectivity and topography measurements of optically flat and smooth mirrors are presented. Based on these results, a new 1024 actuator mirror has been designed and is currently being fabricated. Design considerations and performance expectations for this mirror will be presented.