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Concept

Ion beam figuring

A bright, radiant light with radiating beams of light emanates from the center against a dark background, symbolizing the concept of ion beam figuring.

A subtractive fabrication technique in which a focused beam of inert-gas ions, usually argon, is rastered across an optical surface to sputter away material one atom at a time. Because no tool touches the surface, the process avoids the sub-surface damage of conventional polishing. It is the only known method capable of producing the picometre-scale figure tolerances required for EUV mirrors.

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