title: Fluid jet polishing of optical surfaces.
abstract: We present a new finishing process that is capable of locally shaping and polishing optical surfaces of complex shapes. A fluid jet system is used to guide a premixed slurry at pressures less than 6 bars to the optical surface. We used a slurry comprising water and 10% #800 SiC abrasives (21.8 mum) to reduce the surface roughness of a BK7 sample from 350 to 25 nm rms and to vary the shape of a polished sample BK7, maintaining its surface roughness of 1.6 nm rms, thereby proving both the shaping and polishing possibilities of the presented method.
authors.forename: O W
authors.initials: OW
authors.lastname: Fähnle
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brug
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Frankena