Optical surface polishing method
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorJohn J. Zayhowski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of producing a desired surface on an optical material including producing a plurality of elements of the optical material such that each element has an upper and a lower surface, arranging the plurality of elements such that adjacent elements are separated by an interstitial material having a hardness different from the optical material being processed, processing the surfaces of the elements and removing the interstitial material.
Claims32
A method of forming predetermined optical surface curvatures on optical elements comprising the steps of:
- forming a body having opposed first and second generally planar surfaces, said body including a plurality of optical material elements extending into the body in a direction transverse to the planar surfaces, said elements having optical surfaces exposed on the surfaces of the body and being at least partially separated from each other by interstitial material having a hardness different than the hardness of the optical material;
- and
- polishing the exposed optical surfaces of said elements to form said predetermined optical surface curvatures on the elements,
A method of processing a body of optical material so as to produce a predetermined optical surface curvature on elements of the material, said method comprising the steps of:
- dividing the body into a plurality of elements of the material with interstitial material of a hardness different than the element material, each element having an upper and lower surface;
- and
- polishing at least one of said surfaces of said elements to form the predetermined optical surface curvatures on the elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.