Polishing Techniques for Optical Components of Glass, Semiconductors, and Copper

The study of the mechanisms governing material removal and nanoprofile formation on polished surfaces during the polishing of optical components made of glass, semiconductors, and copper using dispersed systems composed of micro- and nanopowders reveals that the generation of slurry nanoparticles, resulting from energy transfer from abrasive particles to the processed surface, proceeds via the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism in the case of glass, or quantum dot-mediated FRET (QD-FRET) in the case of semiconductors and copper. Quantum dots form on these surfaces during polishing. The material removal rate decreases with increasing bonding energy in glass or with the effective bandgap width of semiconductor or copper oxide quantum dots that form on the surface. The relationship between the energy of slurry nanoparticles and their most probable size follows a linear function for K8 glass and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and a parabolic function for germanium, indium antimonide, and copper. The material removal rate during the polishing of optical components made of K8 glass, PMMA, germanium, indium antimonide, and copper increases linearly with the quality factor of the microresonator and the excited-state lifetime of clusters or quantum dots on the treated surface, in accordance with general polishing trends. Surface roughness parameters R_a, R_q, R_max, and R_z, together with the material removal rate, serve as effective criteria for evaluating polishing efficiency. Theoretical predictions of the material removal rate demonstrate good agreement with experimental measurements of polishing performance for glass, semiconductor crystals, and copper, with deviations ranging from 2 to 5%.