ARTICLE IN PRESS

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in

Physics Research A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nima

Ultra-precision surface finishing by ion beam and plasma jet

techniques—status and outlook
T. Arnold , G. Böhm, R. Fechner, J. Meister, A. Nickel, F. Frost, T. Hänsel, A. Schindler
Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung (IOM), Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany

a r t i c l e in fo abstract

Available online 14 November 2009 Aspheric reflective optics are becoming more and more important for synchrotron radiation source and
Keywords: X-ray applications. The manufacture of such highly precise optical surfaces requires deterministic ultra-
Ultra-precision surface machining precision machining technologies.
Ion beam figuring The article focuses on the present status of development of ion beam finishing technology and of
Ion beam smoothing atmospheric plasma jet technology in Leibniz Institute of Surface Modification (IOM). The basics of the
Plasma jet machining ion beam and the plasma jet processing technologies and the respective equipment and components
developed or being under development for production purposes will be presented together with results
on the ion beam figuring (IBF), ion beam smoothing (IBS), and the deep figuring and figure correction
using atmospheric plasma jet machining (PJM) technique, respectively. Using IBF and IBS, we achieve
nanometer and sub-nanometer accuracies over nearly the entire spectrum of spatial surface
wavelength on a variety of materials. PJM technique has been developed to obtain high removal rates
especially on silicon-based materials. Removal depths of some 10 mm can easily be achieved.
The article gives an outlook to future activities on developments of the techniques with respect to
advanced X-ray optics.
& 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction elements with demanding specifications are needed for beam

At the beginning of the 1980s worldwide efforts had been
started for the development of deterministic ultra-precision
machining technologies to meet the steadily growing demands
of extreme high quality optics surfaces. Nowadays, ultra-precise
and ultra-smooth surfaces are gaining in importance, for example
in the fields of conventional optics, magnetic storage technology,
semiconductor technology, and the more sophisticated optical
elements used for different spectral ranges (extreme ultraviolet
(EUV), soft X-rays) or neutron optics.
In the field of optics, probably the most stringent conditions for
surface accuracy and smoothness are made on optical components
for DUV (deep ultraviolet) and EUV lithography (EUVL) [1,2]. For
the mirror substrates used, a surface precision in the sub-
nanometer range root mean square (RMS) of deviations from the
ideal mathematical design over the entire range of spatial
dimensions from the full aperture down to the nanometer scale
roughness on all surfaces have to be realized in fabrication [1].
Besides the specifications for EUVL, ultra-precision require-
ments have been defined for optical surfaces used at 3rd
generation synchrotron radiation sources. Reflective optical
 Corresponding author. Tel.: + 49 341 235 3120; fax: + 49 341 235 2595.
E-mail address: thomas.arnold@iom-leipzig.de (T. Arnold).
guiding and focusing or for free electron lasers (FEL). In the case of
FEL, plane mirrors a slope error of r 0.05 mrad RMS and surface
roughness of r0.1 nm RMS are required.
Recent investigations on new beamline optics designs suggest
aspheric mirrors with 20–30 mm departure to a best-fit toroid
surface, where the meridional radius is in the range of 50 m and the
sagittal radius is around 50 mm. Although the slope error
specifications (meridional: 1.5 mrad RMS, sagittal: 10 mrad RMS)
are much less stringent as for plane or ellipsoid mirrors, such optical
elements cannot be manufactured by classical polishing techniques.
In addition to the development of new precise metrology
methods, which shall not be discussed in this paper, technologies
and methods have been developed or are still under development
that are adequate to the challenge of ultra-precision optical
fabrication, which means to simultaneously meet the specifications
of figure errors and roughness on aspheric surfaces. Besides ion
beam techniques there are other technologies with similar history
in their developments like magneto-rheological figuring (MRF),
super polishing, chemical vapor machining (CVM), elastic emission
machining (EEM), plasma assisted chemical etching (PACE), and
others. An overview on advanced deterministic surface finishing
technologies has been given recently by Jacobs [3]
Development of ion beam techniques for ultra-precision
surface finishing started in IOM in 1986 in tight cooperation with
Carl Zeiss in Jena. In the last few years, different ion beam

0168-9002/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nima.2009.11.013
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
148 T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156
technologies have been developed allowing for form correction
and/or shaping of large surfaces with accuracies in the nanometer
depth range and a roughness reduction in the sub-nanometer
range as required in the examples mentioned above [4–6]. The
main areas of ion beam figuring (IBF) of optical components are
the reduction of polishing errors (fine surface figure error) and the
production of aspherical wavefront correcting surface figures.
Ion beam sputtering of surfaces can also generate a diversity of
microscopic surface topographies via self-organization. Extensive
experimental and theoretical studies, recently summarized in
different reviews [7–12], have shown that a multitude of
nanopatterns or, in special cases, smoothing effects can occur,
depending on ion beam sputtering conditions and on the
respective material properties. The latter effect is technologically
exploited as ion beam direct smoothing (IBS). This technology as
well as ion beam planarization are techniques developed in IOM
to reduce the surface roughness of a variety of optical materials.
Their combined application together with the utilization of
additional sacrificial layers smoothing from atomistic scale up
to some tens of microns in spatial wavelength can be achieved, as
demonstrated for the smoothing of surface features resulting from
magneto-rheological finishing on silicon surfaces [13,14] and of
ion beam etched ZERODURs [15].
Plasma jet machining (PJM) development based on atmospheric
plasma jet technique for pure chemical removal of material started
in IOM approximately 15 years ago. This process avoids any
introduction of damage to the processed surface and allows very
high removal rates for efficient deep aspherization [16].
This contribution focuses on the present status of the
development of non-conventional optical manufacturing technol-
ogies, i.e. ion beam figuring (IBF), ion beam smoothing (IBS), and
plasma jet machining (PJM), in IOM and gives an outlook to future
activities on developments of these techniques with respect to the
fabrication of advanced X-ray optics.
2. Ion beam figuring
2.1. Ion beam figuring technology
Present IBF technology development in IOM Leipzig is aiming
at deterministic figuring of plane, spherical, and asphere surfaces
with local surface errors with lateral dimensions from some 10 cm
(full aperture) down to 1 mm size range to meet the demanding
requirements for correcting the long spatial wavelength part of
the so called mid-spatial frequency roughness (MSFR). To achieve
0.5 nm RMS and even below for final surface shape different ion
beam tool sizes are necessary with respect to the varying spatial
wavelength shape errors present on the surfaces. Therefore, we
have concentrated on ion beam figuring technology development
for stable and reliable long-term operation with near rotationally
symmetric Gaussian beam shape down to 0.5 mm FWHM or
even smaller.
For the correction of the long spatial wavelength errors we use
an in-house developed 13.56 MHz RF ion source with 3-grid ion
extraction systems providing an 8–25 mm FWHM Gaussian beam
of Argon ions at energies of 1 keV. For the correction of sub-
millimeter spatial wavelength errors a system of diaphragms of
different size made of graphite is mounted in front of the source
with a extraction systems for a 8 mm FWHM ion beam. This
allows to operate one and the same RF ion source with beam sizes
ranging lower than 8–0.5 mm FWHM [17].
This source was successfully used for the surface figuring of
advanced synchrotron beamline optics and for the polishing error
correction of midsize scaled and small optical surfaces down to
RMS specification o1 nm.
Ion beam figuring as well as plasma jet machining, which is
outlined in the next section, follows a dwell time algorithm with a
dwell time distribution proportional to the desired material
removal depth distribution where the focal point of the beam is
scanned with variable speed on a meander path along the surface,
to produce the corrected topology. Given the removal function of
the ion beam or plasma jet, respectively, and the desired topology
of the sample surface to be etched, the according local dwell times
are calculated by a deconvolution algorithm.
The processing software developed in IOM using MATLAB&-
programs involve the calculation of the dwell times for a given
topology to be removed and the simulation of the removal
process. Because of the width of the material removal function,
the calculation of the iteration methods requires the extrapolation
of boundary values as well as an interpolation of missing topology
data. Moreover, the relevance of the dwell times with respect to
acceleration and speed limits of the motion system is examined
and if necessary it is immediately corrected by additional
calculations (smoothing procedure) in order to get a final
topology with highest quality at a minimum in etching time [6].
The evaluation of surface figures have been accomplished
using a Zeiss D100 interferometer with 6 in aperture. All surface
measurements are calibrated for systematic errors by a reference
flat with a quality better than l/100. The interferometer is
equipped with a 5-axes stage for sample alignment. A stitching
routine and software is available for the measurement of parts
larger than 6 in.
2.2. Selected results
The short wavelength limit for correcting of the mid-spatial
frequency waviness with the 1.0 mm ion beam was tested by
generation of a test structure with different lateral spatial
wavelengths (Fig. 1(a)). The test structure on a fused silica plate
has been measured by interferometer (Zeiss D100). The cross-
sectional profile in Fig. 1(b) shows that structures with spatial
wavelength of 6 mm can be resolved. The red curve represents the
estimated profile obtained by process simulation. Fig. 1(c)
demonstrates the expected result of figuring limitation for the
sinusoidal structures with wavelengths starting at 2.0 mm and
below. The estimated profile (red curve) has been obtained from
process simulation. The differences in the amplitudes between
the simulation and ion beam figured surface profiles result from
the underlying surface topology of the fused silica optic flat that
has not been subtracted from the interferogram.
In Figs. 2 and 3 examples of recent results of IBF of optics are
given. Modern synchrotron radiation sources of the 3rd
generation with their high brilliance beam characteristics need
very high quality optics to exploit the full power of this radiation.
For the grazing incidence reflective optics (flat, spherical or
aspherical) besides roughness the slope deviation error is the
most important spec. It has to be improved to meet the present
and future optics performance requirements. For example the
demanding specification of slope deviation errors for flat surfaces
100 mm long is lower than 0.02 arcsec (0.1 mrad) RMS. Thus,
it is necessary to measure and to machine the surface
deterministically over a wide range of spatial wavelength
down to the sub-millimeter range. Fig. 2 shows the surface
measurement results of a 100 mm  20 mm Si plane substrate for
a synchrotron beamline optical grating before and after IBF. The
initial state surface shape error as polished from the optical
workshop was 50.2 nm PV and 11 nm RMS, respectively. The
surface has been IBF processed in two runs with a 2 mm FWHM
beam size. After each figuring step the surface has been measured
by interferometry and by nanometer optical component
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T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156 149

Fig. 1. (a) Test structure with various lateral spatial wavelengths L etched with a gaussian shaped ion beam of 1 mm FWHM. The structure amplitudes of the modeled
input topology is  25 nm. (b) Profile of section A: structures of L = 6 mm can be resolved. (c) Profile of section B: horizontal structures with spatial wavelengths L o 2 mm
cannot be figured with the required resolution when the vertical structure size becomes very small as in the periphery.

Fig. 2. Interferometer (D100) surface topology measurements of a 100 mm  20 mm Si plane substrate for a synchrotron beamline grating, (a) as polished, (b) IBF corrected
surface, (c) slope profile of the center line of the surface shown in (b) after the two IBF steps, measured by D100 (black) and BESSY-NOM (red). (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 3. Shape error correction of a convex quartz lens of 13.5 mm diameter and R=  10.44 mm radius of curvature by a 1.1 mm FWHM Gaussian ion beam using the new
dwell time 3-axes-(x, y, z) processing technique. (a) Interferogram of the surface error topology before IBF: 22.6 nm PV and 4.5 nm RMS and (b) after IBF with resulting
6.50 nm PV and 0.6 nm RMS.

measuring machine (NOM) at the BESSY institute (now Helmholtz-
Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie—HZB) in Berlin for
comparison.
For the D100 interferometer the measuring point distance has
been chosen to 0.208 mm, for the NOM measurement 0.2 mm, but
the NOM optical probe spot had a diameter of 2 mm. Thus the
spatial resolution is substantially lower compared to D100 and
this bandwidth limitation in spatial wavelength take effect as a
low pass filter. We achieved a final surface error in height of
5.7 nm PV and 0.6 nm RMS for the D100 measurement. For the
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150 T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156
line scan data of the center line along the long axis a slope error of
0.022 arcsec (0.107 mrad) RMS and 0.085 arcsec PV with a fit
radius of 300 km was measured by BESSY–NOM and 0.06 arcsec
RMS and 0.3 arcsec PV by D100. The remarkable differences result
from the filtering out of the higher spatial frequencies in the case
of the NOM measurement, as shown in Fig. 2.
Further, a result for a successful surface shape correction of a
small strongly curved lens is shown in Fig. 3. The surface is figured
using a small spot beam and a 3 linear axes motion system
instead of 5 axes. This technique makes use of the well predictable
properties of the ion beam. In the process modeling the ion
incidence angle dependent etching rate is taken into account.
3. Ion beam assisted surface smoothing
The aforementioned ion beam based finishing technologies are
now well established for shape correction and figuring of high
performance optics. In contrast to the stringently deterministic
process of ion beam figuring, ion beam induced smoothing of
micron and nanometer features is strongly coupled to atomistic
processes which are characteristic for the much shorter spatial
length scales and are less deterministic. Nevertheless, within the
last years low-energy ion beams have been developed as
alternative tools that can be beneficially used to tailor the
microscopic surface roughness of solid surfaces on a nanometer
and micron scale.
This section illustrates recently developed different ion beam
assisted processes for the preparation of ultra-smooth surfaces
with RMS roughness values r0.2 nm. Especially, ion beam direct
smoothing and smoothing with planarization or sacrificial
layers are demonstrated. A more detailed review is given by
Frost et al. [15].
3.1. Ion beam direct smoothing
During ion beam sputtering, a variety of surface processes are
active that tend to roughen or smooth the surface. In general, ion
bombardment of solids initiates the development of atomic
recoils and the generation of defects in the bulk and at the
surface. Moreover, surface erosion occurs resulting from sputter
removal of near surface atoms. The ion arrival and related
sputtering events are stochastic in nature and contribute to
surface roughening at atomic length scales. However, simulta-
neous with the sputter generated roughening, a multitude of
surface relaxation processes take place mediated by a mass
transport along the surface [15]. At appropriate temperatures,
surfaces are smoothed via thermally driven surface diffusion,
potentially enhanced by an increased defect production caused by
the ion bombardment. In addition, ion irradiation generates
directed or random fluxes of recoil atoms moving parallel to the
surface, which are able to compensate the curvature dependent
sputtering or contribute to ballistically motivated surface diffu-
sion process. For amorphous materials or surfaces that are
amorphized during ion erosion, defect mediated ion-enhanced
viscous flow may also occur.
In ion beam direct smoothing (IBS) these relaxation mechan-
isms in the development of surface topography during the ion
beam erosion are exploited. Dependent on specific material
characteristics and sputter conditions (ion species, ion energy,
ion incidence angle on surface, etc.) also favorable ion beam
etching conditions can be realized where surface smoothing
dominates the topography evolution. This is illustrated in Fig. 4
for ion beam direct smoothing of a mechanically polished SiC
surface. Starting with a rough surface (Rq = 2.15 nm, Fig. 4(a)) in a
first step the surface was processed by bombardment with Ar +
ions (ion energy 800 eV, ion incidence angle 701). This results in a
significant reduction of the polishing scratches and a surface
roughness of  0.8 nm (Fig. 4(b)). The remaining cauliflower like
surface structures were removed in a second ion beam smoothing
step at an ion incidence angle of 01 (normal incidence) and the
roughness is further reduced to 0.5 nm (Fig. 4(c)). From the PSD
functions in Fig. 4(c) it is evident that all surface roughness
features with spatial frequencies 40.001 nm  1 are removed by
the ion beam smoothing. Nevertheless, due to their atomic nature
ion beam direct smoothing is most efficient on spatial distances
up to about 1000 nm. Spatially larger roughness features, i.e.
spatial frequencies o0.001 nm  1, the ion beam direct smoothing
effect is less efficient. This can be also seen from Fig. 4(c) where
some of the initial large scratches are still visible, even with
smaller amplitudes. Alternatively, a modified planarization
technique, which will be illustrated in the next section, can
be used for the reduction of surface roughness at lower spatial
frequencies.
Finally it should be mentioned that among SiC, ion beam direct
smoothing is also possible for a multitude of other materials, e.g.
Si, quartz, GaN, ZnO or III/V-semiconductors, emphasizing the
relevance of this technique as a process for the preparation of
ultra-smooth surfaces [15].
3.2. Ion beam planarization
Within the planarization technique, smoothing results from
removing of a planarizing sacrificial layer as commonly used in
semiconductor technology for the planarization of processed
silicon wafers. For smoothing of optical surfaces this process was
originally proposed by Johnson and Ingersoll [18,19] and further
developed by Fechner et al. [20,21]. In ion beam planarization the
rough surface is spin or spray coated by a suited sacrificial layer
with a low viscosity (e.g., photo resist) to level out the surface
roughness. Subsequently the sacrificial layer is removed by ion
beam etching at the planarization angle. At the planarization
angle the removal rate (sputter yield) of the sacrificial layer and
the underlying substrate are nearly identical. Thus the smooth
surface of the sacrificial layer surface is transferred into the
substrate. Using this technique, roughness components with
spatial wavelength up to some tens of microns can be reduced.
In the following, this will demonstrated using again a mechani-
cally polished SiC as a model surface. Fig. 5(a) shows a 10 mm AFM
image of the initial SiC surface as received from the conventional
polishing process with characteristic scratches corresponding to
an RMS surface roughness of approximately 4.2 nm.
In order to planarize the surface, it was coated with a suitable
photoresist. Typically, the resist layer thicknesses were 50–80 nm.
After baking of the photoresist, the surface was etched using Ar +
ion beams with ion energy of 700 eV, ion current density of
200 mA cm  2, and a planarization angle of 301. The etching time
for the planarization step was adjusted according to the photo-
resist thickness in order to minimize the overetching into the
material. Overall, this planarization procedure was performed
twice. The final surface roughness obtained in the given case was
0.88 nm RMS (Fig. 5(b)). In contrast to ion beam direct smoothing
also long wavelength feature and initially large and deep
polishing scratches were efficiently removed during the ion beam
planarization process. The small pores still visible in the AFM
image of the planarized surface are caused by imperfections in
the photoresist. By an optimization of the photoresist the pores
can be avoided.
In addition to the example shown, ion beam planarization can
be used for lot of further applications, e.g. for the removal of tool
marks from single-crystal diamond turned metal surfaces [22].
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T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156 151

Rq = 2.15 nm Rq = 0.81 nm 8 nm

0 nm

750 nm 750 nm

106
Rq = 0.54 nm

105

104

PSD [nm4]
103

102

101
SiC as polished
IBS step#1 100
IBS step#2
750 nm
10-1
10-3 10 -2
10 -1

spatial frequency f [nm-1]

Fig. 4. Example for ion beam direct smoothing of a SiC surface (Ar + , Eion = 800 eV, jion = 250 mA cm–2, simultaneous sample rotation). The AFM images were taken from (a)
the initial surface (before smoothing), (b) after smoothing step 1 (ion incidence angle 701), and (c) after smoothing step 2 (ion incidence angle 01). The RMS roughness was
reduced from Rq = 2.15 nm to Rq o0.54 nm. (d) Corresponding power spectral densities for different smoothing steps.

Rq = 4.16 nm 10 nm
Rq = 0.88 nm

0 nm

2000 nm 2000 nm

Fig. 5. Smoothing of a mechanically polished SiC surface by ion beam planarization. The 10 mm AFM images show the initial SiC surface with characteristic polishing
scratches and a RMS surface roughness of  4.2 nm (a) and after two ion beam planarization runs where the surface roughness has been reduced to 0.88 nm RMS (b). The
small pores still visible in the AFM image of the planarized surface (b) are caused by imperfections in the photoresist. By an optimization of the photoresist the pores can be
avoided.
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152 T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156

3.3. Ion beam assisted smoothing with sacrificial layers
For some, especially technologically important, materials, ion
beam smoothing does not work and ion beam erosion, regardless
of the processing conditions, results in increased surface rough-
ness even after removal of only very thin surface layers. This is
also problematic as regards possible overetching effects in ion
beam planarization, whereby an additional roughness can be
generated. In these cases, it might be beneficial to shift the
process of ion beam smoothing to a thin sacrificial layer deposited
on the substrate which has to be smoothed. According to the
discussion of ion beam direct smoothing, potential sacrificial
layers are, for instance, Si or SiO2. The films are smoothed (and
removed) except for a thin residual layer. A basic requirement for
the utilization of this process is that the residual layer does not
affect the later device or component performance. The technology
developed uses the deposition of a sacrificial layer and an ion
beam planarization step and/or an ion beam direct smoothing
step in order to achieve the desired final high spatial frequency
roughness [23]. A specific example for this approach is illustrated
in Fig. 6 for the smoothing of Zerodurs substrates.
The starting point is a Zerodurs substrate after it has gone
through an IBF procedure (Fig. 6(a), 650 nm material was
removed). Because of the ion beam figure correction process the
RMS surface roughness (HSFR) is increased to Rq = 0.45 nm,
compared to Rq o0.2 nm as measured for the conventionally
polished surface before the IBF polishing error correction. In a first
step the initially rough substrate is coated with a SiOx layer by ion
beam sputter deposition. Due to the SiOx coating, the surface
roughness is already reduced from 0.45 nm to an Rq value of
o0.4 nm measured for surface areas of 1  1 mm2 (Fig. 6(b)).
Afterward the surface was smoothed further by an IBS step (Ar + ,
Eion =800 eV, aion = 201, Fig. 6(c)). Consequently, the surface rough-
ness decreases to Rq values of approximately 0.2 nm. This final
roughness can be further reduced by an additional IBP step as
demonstrated, e.g. for the use of Si as sacrificial layers [23].
4. Surface shaping and correction by atmospheric plasma jet
etching
4.1. Plasma jet properties
It has already been mentioned in the introduction that
advanced synchrotron beamline optics feature demanding surface
figures like strongly curved toroids with very small sagittal radii
of several 10 mm, or aspheres that considerably depart from
plano-ellipsoids or toroids. At the same time nanometric surface

3 nm
Rq = 0.45 nm Rq = 0.38 nm

0 nm

250 nm 250 nm

105
Rq = 0.21 nm
104

103

102
PSD [nm4]

101

100

Zerodur surface: 10-1

after IBF ( ΔZ = 650 nm)
IBF + 250 nm SiO x 10-2
IBF + 250 nm SiOx + 30 min IBS
250 nm
10-3
10-4 10 -3 10 -2
10 -1

spatial frequency f [nm-1]

Fig. 6. Illustration of the processing sequence of Zerodurs used as substrates for EUVL optical elements. In a first step a shape correction was made by ion beam figuring (IBF).
Due to the special composition of Zerodurs this results in an increased surface roughness 0.45 nm RMS (a). In the second step the substrate is coated with a thin SiOx layer
( 50 nm) by ion beam sputtering, where the surface roughness is already reduced to values of r0.4 nm RMS (b). Finally, an ion beam direct smoothing step was applied (c).
The final HSFR was now  0.2 nm RMS. From the PSD graph (d) it is seen that surface smoothing is achieved for all spatial frequencies that are 4f=1  10–3 nm–1.
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T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156
shape accuracy over the whole spatial wavelength range is
demanded. Especially, in the millimeter and sub-millimeter range
this is hard to achieve using conventional figuring technologies
like turning, grinding, and polishing techniques. Therefore, new
deterministic technologies are needed that have the capability
to efficiently remove surface material with sufficient process
stability.
It has been shown, that reactive plasma jet machining
technology working at atmospheric pressure is another very
efficient tool for the treatment of optical surfaces [24,25] made of
silicon, silicon based materials like fused silica and silicon carbide,
or LTEM materials like ULEs.
As a key advantage sub-surface damage is avoided owing to
the fact that the material is removed by plasma assisted chemical
etching without any mechanical or physical contribution.
Furthermore, the lateral dimension of the plasma jets can be
adjusted easily from around 12 mm down to the sub-mm range.
Thus, these plasma jets are predestined for pre-shaping with high
machining depth and for deterministic shape correction with high
spatial resolution, but also for efficient removal of surface
contaminants like hydrocarbons or SiOx.
Plasma jet machining is based on the etching reaction of a non-
thermal, chemically reactive plasma jet driven either with
microwave or RF power under atmospheric pressure and normal
environmental conditions. The plasma jet is fed by a mixture of
fluorine containing reactive gas (NF3, CF4, SF6) and oxygen. The
reactive gas dissociates in the plasma producing chemically
reactive fluorine radicals and other highly reactive species that
react with the workpiece surface to form volatile compounds,
which are exhausted. In the case of silicon substrates, SiF4 is
formed as a waste product.
The plasma jet tool function is rotationally symmetric and
exhibits nearly a Gaussian function. In general the removal rate
function R can be approximated by the Arrhenius equation
Rðx; yÞ ¼ C  jr ðx; yÞ  expðEa =ðkB Tðx; yÞÞÞ
where C is a material constant, jr the spatial current density
distribution of reactive species, Ea an activation energy, kB the
Central gas inlet
(e.g. Ar+ CF4)
Shield gas (e.g. N2)
Grounded shield
Pipe electrode
Extended shield
with aperture
Plasma jet
(ions + electrons + neutrals)
F Radical jet
(e.g. Atomic fluorine F)
Si + 4F → SiF4↑
Fig. 7. (a) Schematic drawing of an atmospheric plasma jet source and (b) Gaussian fits to different tool functions obtained by reactive plasma jet sources.
153
Boltzmann constant, and T the spatial surface temperature
distribution on the workpiece.
One of the conditions to get very high shape accuracy in
plasma jet machining is to reduce the thermal effects caused by
the exponential term in Eq. (1). Especially, when insulators like
fused silica or ULEs have to be processed the heat flux onto the
surface caused by the plasma jet has to be minimized. This has
been realized by using cold plasma jets with a gas temperature
less than 50 1C generated by a pulsed microwave excitation. In
cases where it is not applicable to reduce the gas temperature of
the jet, e.g. if very high removal rates for deep etching have to be
achieved, the thermal flux from the plasma jet to the surface and
the resulting spatio-temporal variations of the surface tempera-
ture distribution has to be taken into account. This has been
accomplished by setting up a comprehensive physical model for
the heat transfer and the etching reactions to minimize surface
figure errors during plasma jet machining [26].
Due to the pure chemical etching mechanism in PJM, the
surface roughness increases during processing. Therefore, a
processing chain is necessary that includes at least one mechan-
ical polishing step, in order to achieve the required surface
roughness or to proceed with IBF or IBS technology steps.
Different types of plasma jet sources have been developed in
IOM to cover a wide range of material removal functions and
etching rates. Microwave driven plasma jet sources with a power
consumption of 200–400 W to smaller 10 W mean power and RF
driven plasma jet sources with 60 W mean power are currently
available. A schematic drawing is shown in Fig. 7(a). Depending
on the respective task, volume removal rates and tool widths
(Gaussian FWHM) can be varied between approximately
5  10  5–50 mm3/min and 0.3–12 mm, respectively. A
representative selection of plasma jet tool functions is depicted
in Fig. 7(b). Removal rates of up to 6 mm/s are possible but
decreasing the rates to an appropriate level is very simple, e.g. by
lowering the reactive gas admixture. Furthermore, the lateral
ð1Þ
dimension of the plasma jet can be reduced easily down to the
sub-mm range, especially, when capacitively coupled systems and
RF high-frequency excitation are used. With the help of these
0
Etching rate [μm/s]
Volume removal
-2 rate [mm3/min]
44
4.5
0.65
-4 0.055
0.002
-6
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
x [mm]
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154 T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156

compact systems mid-spatial frequency structures can be corrected.
The deterministic material removal is achieved using 5-axes CNC
machines for workpieces up to 500 mm in diameter and applying
appropriate processing software including sophisticated dwell time
calculation algorithms that have already mentioned in Section 2.
4.2. Selected machining results
In the last few years we focused on the treatment of silicon
carbide surfaces for space applications [27], but silicon substrates
can be processed in the same way. PJM has been applied for a
deterministic surface correction of an off-axis parabolic mirror
made of SiC for surface shape error reduction from 4.7 mm PV to
0.1 mm PV. The surface figure error of the mirror after mechanical
polishing is depicted in Fig. 8(a). Since the error is relatively large,
it was not possible to determine the figure error by interferometry.
Instead, it has been measured by an optical profiler equipped with
an autofocus laser sensor. The measurement accuracy is approxi-
mately 7200 nm. Based on this error map, two consecutive plasma
treatments have been accomplished. The resulting error map
measured using an interferometer is shown in Fig. 8(b). The
occurring vertical line pattern is caused by accuracy limitations of
the optical profiler system due to a non-ideal linear stage motion.
During machining based on profiler data those artifact structures
have been converted into real structures that remain on the surface.
After the first two PJM steps a mechanical shape maintaining
polishing process was required to restore sufficient surface
roughness for interferometer measurements.
However, the surface figure deteriorates during the polishing
step. Thus, several subsequent PJM steps have been applied for a
further figure error reduction. The final surface error after seven
PJM steps is shown in Fig. 8(c). Due to the excellent stability of the
plasma jet tool a high process convergence has been achieved.
Fig. 9 shows a mid-spatial frequency structure removal test on
a flat SiC sample. Starting from a plane surface the test structures

Fig. 8. Shape error correction of a SiC off-axis parabola mirror of 10.1 mm diameter by a 1.0 mm FWHM plasma jet (a) laser profiler measurement of initial surface error
topology: PV 4972 nm and 984 nm RMS, (b) after two PJM cycles: 341 nm PV and 57 nm RMS, and (c) final surface error topology: 89 nm PV and 8.4 nm RMS.
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T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156
nm
600
4 60
500
2 2
400
Y [mm]
0 300
200
-2
100
-4
0 0
-5 0 5
X [mm]
Fig. 9. Fine structure preparation and removal on a flat SiC sample by a 0.5 mm FWHM Gaussian plasma jet (a) interferogram of the surface error prepared by PJM: 672 nm
PV and 94 nm RMS and (b) after 3 subsequent PJM cycles with 1 h total machining time: 65 nm PV and 8.5 nm RMS.
with PV 672 nm and RMS 94 nm depicted in Fig. 9(a) have been
prepared by PJM. Three subsequent PJM steps applying a 0.5 mm
tool width have been accomplished to remove the small
structures yielding a residual error of PV 65 nm and RMS 8.5 nm
shown in Fig. 9(b). An improved result might be obtained with
more accurate workpiece alignment in the PJM machine with
respect to the surface error data. Precise workpiece alignment
during measurement as well as during machining is obviously a
crucial point in mid-spatial frequency structure removal that will
be improved in future by using higher data resolution and more
precise machine equipment.
5. Summary and outlook
In IOM there is a continued R&D from basic research up to
technology and components development mature for production
by highly deterministic particle beam removal techniques for
ultra-precision surface machining of advanced high end optics
fabrication with demanding surface specs down to the sub-
nanometer RMS level over the entire spatial wavelength range.
The paper outlined the present status of ion beam and reactive
plasma jet finishing technologies for figuring and smoothing of
optical surfaces. Different aspects of surface interactions with
atomic particle beams like deterministic figuring by computer
controlled dwell time techniques using near Gaussian shaped and
highly stable in time ion beams and plasma jets, respectively, of
different sizes of the removal functions for maintaining spatial
surface features sizes from the meter down to the millimeter
spatial wavelength range. In this high-tech field IOM co-operates
with experienced partners in high end optics from industry and
institutions continuously since 1986 covering optics applications
from semiconductor lithography over space based astro to X-ray
synchrotron and neutrons. For enabling the transfer of the R&D
results to the production and fabrication IOM co-operates with
machine building companies.
In examples of processing of different optics like a Si-flat
substrate for a synchrotron grating, a small fused silica lens and a
small sized SiC off-axis parabola mirror and a SiC flat the high
performances of the figuring techniques of the ion beam and the
reactive plasma jet, respectively, have been demonstrated.
Applying different tool widths down to 0.5 mm IBF and plasma
jet are effective on surface figure and surface structures of spatial
155
nm
4
50
40
Y [mm]
0 30
20
-2
10
-4
-6 -4 -2 0 2 4
X [mm]
wavelengths 41 mm to fulfill the specs for present high end
optics and to work very efficient and reliable. Historically the
reactive plasma jet technology is younger then ion beam and the
full capabilities for widespread application in ultra-precision
surface technology including the deterministic deposition of
optical materials as the reverse alternative to the etch removal
are still to be exploited. In comparison to abrasive techniques and
the ion beam the plasma jet have the big advantage to operate
sub-surface damage free and even allows to remove sub-surface
damaged layers originating from former surface figuring.
To complete the ultra-precision surface finishing with respect
to the left over part of the high spatial frequency roughness in the
wavelength range from some 100 mm down to sub-nanometer ion
beam direct smoothing and ion beam planarization are utilized
for smoothing surfaces where the range higher then 10 mm spatial
wavelength may cause problems due to the physical principle of
the two techniques. In such cases the chain of the sophisticated
ultra precision finishing steps has to bee combined with advanced
polishing steps.
In our present and next time R&D activities concerning X-ray
optics we will focus to enhance the performances of the bundle of
technologies presented here to encounter the challenges in
surface finishing to manufacture future highly curved focusing
optics for the VUV and the soft X-ray range for 3rd generation
synchrotron radiation sources and for FEL optics.
This makes it necessary as in the former developments to
comprise an interplay of improving the finishing processing and
appropriate highly resolved surface figure measurement techniques.
Therefore we will co-operate with the experts from HZB/BESSY
optics lab and manufacturers of advanced synchrotron optics.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation on beamline
optics with Dr. F. Siewert, Dr. T. Zeschke, T. Schlegel and Dr. H.
Lammert from HZB (former BESSY) Berlin and the cooperation on
SiC optics machining with Dr. G. Gubbels (TNO, The Netherlands).
We are deeply grateful for the fruitful cooperation on Zerodur
smoothing with Dr. S. Ritter, Dr. J. Alkemper and Dr. M. Schweizer
(Schott Glas AG, Germany). The financial supports of parts of
the work from the German Ministry of Research and
Education (InnoProfile and Contract no.: 13N7931), Deutsche
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156 T. Arnold et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 616 (2010) 147–156

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