Abstract
Single crystal sapphire is widely used as the material for precision equipments, due to its high hardness, chemical inertness and light transmission. However, it is difficult to obtain a scratch-free and damage-free sapphire surface with high-efficiency through traditional mechanical polishing or etching. We developed plasma assisted polishing (PAP) for the finishing of difficult-to-machine materials, such as silicon carbide, diamond, and sapphire. In this article, preliminary research results are showed about PAP applied to polishing of single crystal c-plane sapphire substrates. Combination of helium based atmospheric pressure water vapor plasma irradiation and silica abrasive polishing drastically increased removal rate of the sapphire c-plane. XPS measurements of the surfaces with and without irradiation of water vapor plasma revealed that alumina hydrate was formed by plasma irradiation at low temperature of less than 40°C. It is assumed that formation of alumina hydrate promoted the removal rate of sapphire.
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