Rapid Fabrication of Precise SiC Mirror Substrates

Sandia Systems, Inc. will apply novel processing techniques to demonstrate an improved fabrication process for SiC optical elements. We will combine the CVD of SiC replication process and ion beam figuring process to demonstrate fabrication of high quality optical elements. The CVD SiC would have no subsurface damage layer, and this would alleviate many of the materials problems associated with processing the material. Demonstration of this proposed integrated processing arrangement would provide a methodology to rapidly fabricate complex SiC elements which have improved optical properties, yet at a significantly reduced cost.