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Metal polishing with angstrometric roughness

I am looking for articles or tips about how to do metal polishing with angstrometric roughness. Thank so much.

Joelmo Oliveira
Federal University of Bahia - Salvador
2005

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I really don't think you can achieve what you want. Conventional polishing technologies are miles away from what you want. Remember that a typical chemical bond is in the region of a couple of angstroms long, so you want to be able to polish something to a level that is less than a bond length. At the ends of these bonds are the atoms, which are again in the order of magnitude of an angstrom in diameter. The only way to hope to achieve what you want is to virtually remove atoms one by one. Once you have done that, how will you measure the flatness? Probably the best way would be by atomic force microscopy, but I don't think you can achieve what you hope for.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2005

Sinchrotron Beamlines uses widely x-ray mirrors polished with angstrometric precision. How do they do that?

Joelmo Jesus de Oliveira
Federal University of Bahia - Salvador
2005

In fact x-ray precision focusing need x-ray mirrors with very smooth surface (atomic level roughness). Indeed it is not done ever through mechanical or chemical polishing but through some thin film deposition technique.

Cliford, Terry
- San Francisco, California, USA
January 14, 2012