Polishing
Randomised polishing techniques are used to produce the mirror surface. The polishing wheels and associated equipment are specially prepared according to the shape of mirror required (plain, cylindrical etc.).
Polishing can be a very long process (many weeks) and requires frequent quality checks to ensure that the correct figure and surface finish is being developed. This process needs to be done in very stable environmental conditions. Our factory is temperature controlled, and the polishing rooms are closed off from the rest of the factory to further reduce any fluctuations.
Polishing processes are not only used for x-ray mirrors. Diffraction crystals are also precisely polished to achieve low surface roughness. This increases the diffraction efficiency and reduces x-ray diffraction scatter from the surface of the diffraction crystal.