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Metal mirrors have attracted increasing attention for satisfying the growing demands for high-performance optics in airborne and spaceborne remote sensing systems. Additive manufacturing has enabled the development of metal mirrors with reduced weight and improved strength. AlSi10Mg is the most widely used metal for additive manufacturing. Diamond cutting is an effective method for obtaining nanometer-scale surface roughness. However, the surface/subsurface defects of additively manufactured AlSi10Mg deteriorate the surface roughness. Conventionally, AlSi10Mg mirrors used in near-infrared and visible systems are plated with NiP layers to improve the surface polishing performance; however, this leads to the bimetallic bending because of the different coefficients of thermal expansion between the NiP layers and AlSi10Mg blanks. In this study, a method of nanosecond-pulsed laser irradiation is proposed to eliminate the surface/subsurface defects of AlSi10Mg. The microscopic pores, unmolten particles and two-phase microstructure of the mirror surface were eliminated. The mirror surface exhibited better polishing performance, and it could be smoothly polished to a nanometer-scale surface roughness. The mirror exhibits strong temperature stability owing to the elimination of the bimetallic bending caused by the NiP layers. It is expected that the mirror surface fabricated in this study can satisfy the requirements for near-infrared or even visible applications.

Optical surfaces with high quality have been widely applied in high-tech industries for their excellent performances. To precision manufacture those surfaces efficiently and effectively, various machining technologies involved become extremely crucial. As one of the promising ultra-precision machining technologies, inflated or solid elastic tool polishing has attracted more attention for its own superiority. However, there is still lack of understanding on material removal mechanisms especially with the consideration of curvature effect, and it is of great importance to determine the surface quality and form control in ultra-precision polishing process. In this paper, originating from the famous macro-scale Preston equation, the curvature effect-based material removal model in polishing using a flexible ball-end tool has been developed successfully on the basis of two key sub-models, one is the generic model of effective relative velocity and the other refers to the semi-experimental contact pressure model. A series of spot polishing experiments subsequently are conducted on concave surfaces with a curvature radius range from 75 mm to 225 mm. The experimentally measured section profiles of polishing spots do match well with the predicted data, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed material removal model. On the measured polishing spots, it is also observed that there have two nonuniform material removal phenomena, one is analyzed along the central axis and the other is discussed by two regions symmetrical about the central axis. Compared with the effective relative velocity, it is found that, the contact pressure is more sensitive to curvature effect by investigating the variation of maximum removal depth within a broader curvature radius range from 75 mm to 1000 mm. This study can provide a valuable foundation for polishing optical surfaces with deterministic removal.