Ion Beam Figuring

The Ion Beam Figuring (IBF) facility is located in a class ISO 7 clean room.

T

he ion gun is a 3 cm Hollow Cathode Ion Beam Source, assisted with an electron gun to neutralise the global charge. The ion beam size in adapted with masks in function of mirror dimension and lateral size of surface errors. 

The ion beam gun has to scan the workpiece at normal incidence and constant distance. For this, the ion gun movements are software controlled for x,y translation (and q_x, q_y rotation if the surface is significantly curved). The z translation is performed by the workpiece mount.

Substrate size: 250x250 mm² max

Substrate materials: glass, Zerodur®, CVD SiC, Ni-P, some metallic thin films …