Hybrid CO2 laser-polishing process for improving material removal of silicon carbide

摘要

A novel hybrid polishing process, called laser-assisted polishing (LAP), was proposed in this study for improving the material removal rate (MRR) of polishing silicon carbide (SiC) by combining a CO2 laser source and a conventional polishing machine. The results showed that the MRR increased by 79.0% using the LAP process on the cracked and oxidized SiC sample surface as compared to that using the mechanical polishing of a normal sample. It was also found that the laser-induced crack was the main mechanism underlying the growth of MRR in the LAP process. It was expected that the proposed LAP process and the material removal mechanism might shed light on the expansion of the hybrid machining field and better industrial application of SiC.