Abstract
Quartz glass is a typical optical material. In this research, colloidal silica (SiO2) and colloidal cerium oxide (CeO2) are used as abrasive grains to polish quartz glass in the shear thickening polishing (STP) process. The STP method employs the shear-thickening mechanism of non-Newtonian power-law fluid to achieve high-efficiency and high-quality polishing. The different performance in material removal and surface roughness between SiO2 and CeO2 slurries was analyzed. The influence of the main factors including polishing speed, abrasive concentration, and pH value on the MRR, workpiece surface roughness, and the surface topography was discussed. Two different slurries can both achieve fine quartz surface in shear thickening polishing with the polishing speed 100 rpm, and pH value 8. The quartz glass surface roughness Ra decreases from 120 ± 10 to 2.3 nm in 14 minutes’ polishing with 8 wt% 80 nm SiO2 slurry, and the MRR reaches 121.6 nm/min. The quartz glass surface roughness Ra decreases from 120 ± 10 to 2.1 nm in 12 minutes polishing by 6 wt% 100 nm CeO2 slurry and the MRR reaches 126.2 nm/min.
Highlights
Key Laboratory of Special Purpose Equipment and Advanced Processing Technology, Ministry of Education and Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
Quartz glass has been widely used in aerospace, high-power lasers, detection system, optical communication, and laser fusion devices due to its advantages of strong resistance to laser damage, low thermal expansion coefficient, good spectral characteristics, and good thermal shock resistance [1]
Micromachines 2021, 12, 956The polishing slurries were prepared with concentrations of 6 wt% SiO2 and CeO2
Summary
Key Laboratory of Special Purpose Equipment and Advanced Processing Technology, Ministry of Education and Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China. Colloidal silica (SiO2 ) and colloidal cerium oxide (CeO2 ) are used as abrasive grains to polish quartz glass in the shear thickening polishing (STP) process. The different performance in material removal and surface roughness between SiO2 and CeO2 slurries was analyzed. Two different slurries can both achieve fine quartz surface in shear thickening polishing with the polishing speed. The quartz glass surface roughness Ra decreases from 120 ± 10 to 2.1 nm in 12 minutes polishing by 6 wt% 100 nm CeO2 slurry and the MRR reaches 126.2 nm/min. The traditional lapping and polishing process can achieve the nanometer level of workpiece surface roughness. The traditional contact-processing technology mainly uses mechanical action to remove material, which is easy to cause surface/subsurface damage and affect the performance of optical components [4]
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