Experimental investigation of subsurface damage depth of lapped optics by fluorescent method

Subsurface defects were fluorescently tagged with nanoscale quantum dots and scanned layer by layer using confocal fluorescence microscopy to obtain images at various depths. Subsurface damage depths of fused silica optics were characterized quantitatively by changes in the fluorescence intensity of feature points. The fluorescence intensity vs scan depth revealed that the maximum fluorescence intensity decreases sharply when the scan depth exceeds a critical value. The subsurface damage depth could be determined by the actual embedded depth of the quantum dots. Taper polishing and magnetorheological finishing were performed under the same conditions to verify the effectiveness of the nondestructive fluorescence method. The results indicated that the quantum dots effectively tagged subsurface defects of fused-silica optics, and that the nondestructive detection method could effectively evaluate subsurface damage depths.