Advancements in Ion Beam Figuring

Ion beam figuring (IBF) is a well established deterministic surface finishing technology found in high-end optics manufacturing. The paper addresses recent advancements of this technology aiming at the increase of achievable precision especially for the correction of mid-spatial wavelength surface structures by small tool functions. Furthermore, new developments for increasing productivity as well as improving machinability of difficult-to-treat materials like metal surfaces are presented.