Method of Making Lightweight, Single Crystal Mirror

Abstract

A method of making a mirror from a single crystal blank may include fine grinding top and bottom surfaces of the blank to be parallel. The blank may then be heat treated to near its melting temperature. An optical surface may be created on an optical side of the blank. A protector may be bonded to the optical surface. With the protector in place, the blank may be light weighted by grinding a non-optical surface of the blank using computer controlled grinding. The light weighting may include creating a structure having a substantially minimum mass necessary to maintain distortion of the mirror within a preset limit. A damaged layer of the non-optical surface caused by light weighting may be removed with an isotropic etch and/or repaired by heat treatment. If an oxide layer is present, the entire blank may then be etched using, for example, hydrofluoric acid. A reflecting coating may be deposited on the optical surface.