Modeling study on the surface morphology evolution during removing the optics surface/subsurface damage using atmospheric pressure plasma processing

Plasma processing has been widely reported as an effective tool in relieving or removing surface/subsurface damage induced by previous mechanical machining process. However, the surface morphology evolution during removing the damage using plasma processing is rarely reported. In this research, this procedure is studied based on experiments and robust numerical models developed on the basis of Level Set Method (LSM). Even if some unique properties of plasma etching are observed, such as particle redistribution, the dominant role of isotropic etching of plasma processing is verified based on experiments and 2D LSM simulations. With 2D LSM models, the damage removal process under various damage characteristics is explored in detail. Corresponding peak-to-valley roughness evolution is investigated as well. Study on morphology evolution is also conducted through the comparison between experiments and 3D LSM computations. The modeling results and experiments show good agreement with each other. The trends of simulated roughness evolution agree with the experiments as well. It is revealed that the plasma processing may end up with a planar surface depending on the damage characteristics. The planarization procedure can be divided into four parts: crack opening and pit formation; pit coalescing and shallow pits subsumed by deep ones; morphology duplicate etching; and finally a planar and damage free surface.