Optical Mirror With C/C Composite Substrate and an Intermediate Layer of Molydenum, Tungsten, or Niobium 40 to 100 .mu.m Thick

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an optical mirror which can be suitably used for lightweight large mirrors, high-speed revolving polygonal mirrors, high output laser reflecting mirrors, copier drums, movable mirrors for cameras and X-ray mirrors.

2. Description of the Prior Art

At present, large-size mirrors, high-speed revolving polygonal mirrors and high output laser reflecting mirrors are constituted by ultrahigh precision finishing of aluminum alloy or oxygen-free copper through turning, milling, etc., to a predetermined shape and then forming a mirror surface by coating with gold or the like.

Desirably, these mirrors should not be deformed by heat of the light they reflect or by centrifugal or other externally applied forces. However, the material used for forming the mirror surface of the mirror has a lower specific gravity and coefficient of thermal expansion and a higher modulus of elasticity than those of the metallic material used as substrate. Therefore, deformation of the mirror under gravitational and centrifugal forces, and heat etc. is inevitable. Further, deformation of the material from which the mirror surface is formed caused at the time of the machining sometimes appears as a strain with temperature increase at the time of use or over long use.

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical mirror which is substantially free of deformation due to the gravity, external forces or heat.

To attain the above object of the present invention, there is provided an optical mirror in which a mirror surface formation material, e.g. aluminum, is coated on a substrate consisting of a c/c composite and having a predetermined shape, and the coated mirror surface formation material layer is ultrahigh precision machined to a small thickness such that its deformation is suppressed by the substrate.

The c/c composite used as the substrate has a low specific weight and a high modulus of elasticity, so that the deformation of the mirror as a whole due to gravitational force and centrifugal and other external forces is small. Further, since the coefficient of thermal expansion of the substrate is small, the thermal deformation is reduced. Also, since the thermal conductivity is high, even if the mirror surface formation material should be locally heated, the generated heat is quickly transmitted to the substrate to substantially uniformalize the temperature, thus preventing adverse effects on the mirror surface formation material with local temperature rise.

Further, the mirror surface formation material is coated to such a small thickness that its deformation due to heat or other causes is suppressed by the substrate. Thus, even if there occurs a temperature change such that the mirror surface formation material tends to be deformed, the deformation is suppressed by the substrate having high mechanical strength.

The above and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawing.

The drawing is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the optical mirror according to the invention.

The drawing is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the optical mirror according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 designates a substrate for the mirror. On the substrate 1, an intermediate member 2 is provided for joining the substrate 1 and mirror surface formation material 3 with high mechanical strength. The mirror surface formation material 3 on the intermediate member 2 is of a well-known type, e.g. an aluminum alloy, a copper alloy, tungsten, molybdenum, iridium, rhodium, gold or platinum.

The substrate 1 noted above consists of a c/c composite, which is composed of carbon as matrix material and incorporates carbon fibers as a reinforcing material. More specifically, a c/c composite material of a flat woven lamination or three-dimensional structure material is cut to a predetermined shape. When molding the substrate from the c/c composite material, part of the carbon fibers constituting the material are orientated such that they extend in a perpendicular direction to the mirror formation surface. As a result, elongation of fibers can be prevented to eliminate deformation of the mirror surface.

The intermediate layer 2 is formed on the substrate 1 by plasma spraying or laser spraying to form a coat of a metal having excellent bonding property with respect to both the substrate and the mirror surface formation material, e.g. molybdenum, tungsten or niobium. This intermediate layer 2 may have a thickness of 40 to 100 .mu.m. It may be dispensed with when the mirror surface formation material is a material having excellent bonding property with respect to the c/c composite, e.g. molybdenum, tungsten or the like.

Subsequently, the mirror surface formation material 3 is coated on the intermediate layer 2 or substrate 1 to a thickness of several hundreds to about one thousand of .mu.m. Then an upper portion 3b of the coating layer 3 is ground and polished away through ultrahigh precision turning, milling, lapping, etc. to a predetermined thickness, thus forming a mirror surface 4. The thickness of the coated mirror surface formation material layer 3 is desirably such that the thickness of the remaining coating layer 3a with the mirror surface 4 formed by grinding and polishing away the mirror surface is as thin as possible within the range in which the mirror surface can be polished without any problem, so that deformation of the coating layer 3a due to heat or other causes is suppressed by the substrate. More specifically the thinner the remaining layer 3a of the mirror surface formation material is, the less the deforming that tends to act thereon because of heat or other causes. As a result, deformation is prevented because the layer is thin so that the generated deforming forces are small and also the layer is directly or indirectly strongly bonded to the substrate. In addition, the generated heat is transmitted to the substrate, so that no local heating occurs. Thus, the thickness of the coated mirror surface formation material 3 is the sum of the upper portion 3b of layer that is removed by grinding and polishing for the formation of the mirror surface and the remaining lower portion 3a having the mirror surface. While the coating layer 3a need only be thick enough to prevent transmission of light therethrough and may therefore be as thin as a few .mu.m, the actually practicle thickness thereof is within the range of 200 to 500 .mu.m in view of the mechanical strength it requires and the fact that it may later become necessary to refinish it for the removal of stains etc.

Since the coating layer is formed on the mirror formation surface to which some of fibers of the composite material extend in the perpendicular direction, even if the thickness of the coating layer is slightly excessive, the c/c composite is not substantially elongated in the perpendicular direction. Thus, deformation is prevented when a deforming force acts on the coating layer.

When the mirror surface formation material 3 has not been densely coated, it can be increased in density or converted to an amorphous state by plasma or laser glazing or by a mechanical treatment such as shot peening or rolling, if necessary.

The Table below shows the physical characteristics of the c/c composite mentioned above in comparison with the physical characters of metals heretofore used as the substrate.

From the above Table, it is obvious that the c/c composite material has a high elastic modulus and heat transfer efficiency and low specific gravity and coefficient of thermal expansion compared with the metals heretofore used for the substrate.

As has been described in the foregoing, since the optical mirror according to the invention uses the c/c composite material as its substrate, as compared with aluminum, it is possible to obtain a coefficient of thermal expansion, reduced to one-fourtieth, a specific weight reduced by about 50% and more than five times the modulus of elasticity. Thus, the thermal deformation of the product can be reduced to reduce deformation due to the gravity and centrifugal forces, thus permitting fabrication of superlarge mirrors and superhigh-speed revolving polygonal mirrors. Further, since the c/c composite has excellent heat resistance and oxidization resistance, by using as the coating material a material having high heat resistance and high oxidization resistance it is possible to provide a mirror which can be used in high temperature environments or a high-output laser mirror that does not require cooling.

An example of the invention will now be given.

One surface of a c/c composite material of three-dimensional structure 70 mm in length, 17 mm in width and 14 mm in thickness (produced by Toray Industry Inc., Japan) was coated with Mo by plasma weld injection to form a layer of Mo having a thickness of about 50 .mu.m and serving as an intermediate layer. The layer of Mo deposited on the composite material was coated with Al by low-pressure plasma weld injection to form a layer of Al having a thickness of about 700 .mu.m and serving as a mirror surface forming material.

The formed Al layer was polished by super-presicion milling to remove part of the Al layer, thereby forming a plane mirror having a thickness of about 350 .mu.m.

The plane mirror was scanned lengthwise with a CO laser beam having a spot diameter of 1 mm and an output of 2 kw at a scanning velocity of 0.5 m/min. As a resulnct no discernible deformation could be observed.

For comparison, a plane mirror was formed by following the same procedure as described above except for use of an Al material in place of the c/c composite material. The plane mirror thus formed was scanned laterally in the same manner as described above. In this case, there was observed deformation of about 15 .mu.m when the output was 1 KW and of about 22 .mu.m when the output was 2 KW.