In situ laser monitoring of laser polishing

A novel fabrication parameter controlling method for laser polishing is presented, measuring within the footprint the smoothening process in real time. Recently, a new method for in situ measuring level of surface roughness has been developed [1] where a HeNe laser beam is being reflected from within the sample at the surface under test and the intensity of its reflected beam is being monitored.In this paper we report on an experimental study where this method has been applied to laser polishing. The internal local surface area under test is chosen to be located at the very spot where the laser polishing footprint is located from the outside of the sample melting its surface locally. Because fused silica is not transparent at the operating CO2 laser wavelength, the intensity of the reflected beam can be monitored enabling an in situ control of the laser polishing process. Consequently, the optimum dwell time can be determined, a footprint needs to stay at a certain point before moving further enabling a more stable and cost optimized polishing. [1] O.Fähnle,“In process monitoring of optics fabrication”, SPIEconference “PrecisionOptics Manufacturing”2017