How the ion processing of reflective aluminum coatings affects their microrelief and light scattering

This paper discusses how bombardment by krypton ions with an energy of 20 keV affects the microrelief and light scattering of reflective aluminum layers. It is established that, for Grazing angles of incidence of the ions (about 85degrees), smoothing of the microrelief occurs, and the light scattering is reduced by at least a factor of 5. It is established that ion polishing occurs in a definite interval of irradiation doses. The ion polishing of ruled diffraction gratings (1200 lines/mm) reduces their light scattering by a factor of 3. (C) 2004 Optical Society Of America.