Advanced Technologies for Fabrication and Testing of Large Flat Mirrors

Abstract

Classical fabrication methods alone do not enable manufacturing of large flat mirrors that are much larger than 1 meter. This dissertation presents the development of enabling technologies for manufacturing large high performance flat mirrors and lays the foundation for manufacturing very large flat mirrors. The enabling fabrication and testing methods were developed during the manufacture of a 1.6 meter flat. The key advantage over classical methods is that our method is scalable to larger flat mirrors up to 8 m in diameter.Large tools were used during surface grinding and coarse polishing of the 1.6 m flat. During this stage, electronic levels provided efficient measurements on global surface changes in the mirror. The electronic levels measure surface inclination or slope very accurately. They measured slope changes across the mirror surface. From the slope information, we can obtain surface information. Over 2 m, the electronic levels can measure to 50 nm rms of low order aberrations that include power and astigmatism. The use of electronic levels for flatness measurements is analyzed in detail.Surface figuring was performed with smaller tools (size ranging from 15 cm to 40 cm in diameter). A radial stroker was developed and used to drive the smaller tools; the radial stroker provided variable tool stroke and rotation (up to 8 revolutions per minute). Polishing software, initially developed for stressed laps, enabled computer controlled polishing and was used to generate simulated removal profiles by optimizing tool stroke and dwell to reduce the high zones on the mirror surface. The resulting simulations from the polishing software were then applied to the real mirror. The scanning pentaprism and the 1 meter vibration insensitive Fizeau interferometer provided accurate and efficient surface testing to guide the remaining fabrication. The scanning pentaprism, another slope test, measured power to 9 nm rms over 2 meters. The Fizeau interferometer measured 1 meter subapertures and measured the 1.6 meter flat to 3 nm rms; the 1 meter reference flat was also calibrated to 3 nm rms. Both test systems are analyzed in detail. During surface figuring, the fabrication and testing were operated in a closed loop. The closed loop operation resulted in a rapid convergence of the mirror surface (11 nm rms power, and 6 nm rms surface irregularity). At present, the surface figure for the finished 1.6 m flat is state of the art for 2 meter class flat mirrors.