Diamond milling of metal mirrors with optical surface quality

摘要

Optical and opto-mechanical components in astronomical instruments are amongst the most expensive anddelicate single parts. Lenses made of special glasses or crystals are sometimes difficult to obtain (if at all),especially with larger diameters and are figured and polished involving time-consuming and even risky procedures.At infrared wavelengths (& 5μm), when the instrument is cooled to temperatures even below that of liquidnitrogen, mechanical stress is induced between e.g. a glass lens and its metal mounting due to different heatexpansion coefficients of the materials involved. This can considerably degrade the performance of the wholeinstrument. At infrared wavelengths the optical specifications considering surface roughness and form errorare less tight than in the optical due to the longer wavelengths involved. Hence metal mirrors with a surfaceroughness and a form error of around 50 nm (RMS) may generally be favoured due to lower production costs thenlenses. Goal of the project described here is to manufacture plane, spherical or aspherical aluminum mirrors,which are not hampered in the ways described above, in a cost effective procedure with optical specifications(surface roughness and form error) of less than 100 nm (RMS) by means of direct diamond milling.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.