Sapphire is uniquely suitable for sensor windows of electro-optical systems due to its high transparency, high mechanical strength, and chemical inactivity. Unfortunately, these same characteristics also cause polishing of sapphire windows to be extremely difficult and slow. Hence the challenge is to develop a process for affordable production of large area sapphire windows with low-roughness, low-stress and without surface and subsurface damage. Here we report a novel rapid chemical mechanical polishing process that increases the material removal rate during polishing of sapphire by greater than twofold over conventional processes. Such a process can also produce angstrom level surface finish.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.