title: Float polishing of optical materials.
abstract: The float-polishing technique has been studied to determine its suitability for producing supersmooth surfaces on optical materials, yielding a roughness of <2 A rms. An attempt was made to polish six different materials including fused quartz, Zerodur, and sapphire. The low surface roughness was achieved on fused quartz, Zerodur, and Corning experimental glass-ceramic materials, and a surface roughness of <1 A rms was obtained on O-cut single-crystal sapphire. Presumably, similar surface finishes can also be obtained on CerVit and ULE quartz, which could not be polished satisfactorily in this set of experiments because of a mismatch between sample mounting and machine configuration.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Shaffer
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shibano
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Namba