Tool path generation of ultra-precision diamond turning: A state-of-the-art review

With the increasing market demand for optical complex surface parts,the application of multi-axis ultraprecision single-point diamond turning is increasing.A tool path generation method is very important to decrease manufacturing time,enhance surface quality,and reduce cost.Compared with the tool path generation of the traditional multi-axis milling,that of the ultra-precision single-point diamond turning requires higher calculation accuracy and efficiency.This paper reviews the tool path generation of ultra-precision diamond turning,considering several key issues:cutter location(CL)points calculation,the topological form of tool path,interpolation mode,and G code optimization.

State-of-the-art and recent developments in micro/nanoscale pressure sensors for smart wearable devices and health monitoring systems

Small-sized,low-cost,and high-sensitivity sensors are required for pressure-sensing applications because of their critical role in consumer electronics,automotive applications,and industrial environments.Thus,micro/nanoscale pressure sensors based on micro/nanofabrication and micro/nanoelectromechanical system technologies have emerged as a promising class of pressure sensors on account of their remarkable miniaturization and performance.These sensors have recently been developed to feature multifunctionality and applicability to novel scenarios,such as smart wearable devices and health monitoring systems.In this review,we summarize the major sensing principles used in micro/nanoscale pressure sensors and discuss recent progress in the development of four major categories of these sensors,namely,novel material-based,flexible,implantable,and selfpowered pressure sensors.

Fundamentals of atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing:a review

Atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing(ACSM)represents techniques for manufacturing high-end products in various fields,including future-generation computing,communication,energy,and medical devices and materials.In this paper,the theoretical boundary between ACSM and classical manufacturing is identified after a thorough discussion of quantum mechanics and their effects on manufacturing.The physical origins of atomic interactions and energy beams-matter interactions are revealed from the point view of quantum mechanics.The mechanisms that dominate several key ACSM processes are introduced,and a current numerical study on these processes is reviewed.A comparison of current ACSM processes is performed in terms of dominant interactions,representative processes,resolution and modelling methods.Future fundamental research is proposed for establishing new approaches for modelling ACSM,material selection or preparation and control of manufacturing tools and environments.This paper is by no means comprehensive but provides a starting point for further systematic investigation of ACSM fundamentals to support and accelerate its industrial scale implementation in the near future.

Femtosecond laser fabrication of 3D templates for mass production of artificial compound eyes

Compound eyes are unique optical imaging systems that consist of numerous separate light-sensitive units(ommatidia).Attempts have been made to produce artificial compound eyes via advanced 3 D nanotechnologies.Among them,femtosecond laser direct writing(FsLDW)technology has emerged as an effective strategy due to its distinct advantages in 3 D designable and high precision fabrication capability.However,the point-by-point scanning process results in a very low fabrication efficiency,limiting the practical applications of the FsLDW technology.To solve this problem,we propose a high-efficiency method for the mass production of 3 D artificial compound eyes using a photopolymer template fabricated by FsLDW.The resultant 3 D SU-8 compound eye templates could be used to replicate polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)compound eyes many times(over 50 times)with a highly improved efficiency(nearly 20 times higher than the efficiency of direct fabrication using the point-by-point FsLDW).The PDMS replicas showed good focusing and imaging performances.We anticipate that this method may serve as an enabler for the mass production of 3 D artificial compound eyes and promote their practical applications in the near future.

Study of the material removal mechanism of glass-ceramics based on consecutive incremental loading in ductile-regime grinding

Glass-ceramics have many excellent properties and are widely used in various fields. During the grinding process,the workpiece surface is typically subject to material removal by grit of incremental heights, which has rarely been the focus of research. As such, it is necessary to study the material removal mechanism of glass-ceramics under consecutive incremental loading, which more closely reflects the actual grinding process. In this paper,to analyze the plastic deformation and residual stress of lithium aluminosilicate(LAS) glass-ceramics, a finite element model is established based on the Drucker–Prager yield criterion for ductile regimes. A nano-scratch test was also conducted and the test results show that both the residual depth and residual stress increase with an increase in the number of increments, and that consecutive incremental loading promotes the plastic deformation of glass-ceramics and increases the residual stress of the material in the ductile-regime process. These findings provide guidance for achieving higher dimensional accuracy in the actual grinding of glass-ceramics parts.

Electron paramagnetic resonance characterization of aluminum ion implantation-induced defects in 4H-SiC

Deep-level defects in silicon carbide(SiC)are critical to the control of the performance of SiC electron devices.In this paper,deep-level defects in aluminumion-implanted 4H-SiC after high-temperature annealingwere studied using electron paramagnetic resonance(EPR)spectroscopy at temperatures of 77 K and 123 K under different illumination conditions.Results showed that the main defect in aluminum ion-implanted 4H-SiC was the positively charged carbon vacancy(VC+),and the higher the doping concentration was,the higher was the concentration of VC+.Itwas found that the type of material defectwas independent of the doping concentration,although more VC+defects were detected during photoexcitation and at lower temperatures.These results should be helpful in the fundamental research of p-type 4H-SiC fabrication in accordance with functional device development.

Molecular dynamics simulation on the effect of dislocation structures on the retention and distribution of helium ions implanted into silicon

To investigate the effect of dislocation structures on the initial formation stage of helium bubbles, molecular dynamics(MD) simulations were used in this study. The retention rate and distribution of helium ions with 2 ke V energy implanted into silicon with dislocation structures were studied via MD simulation. Results show that the dislocation structures and their positions in the sample affect the helium ion retention rate. The analysis on the three-dimensional distribution of helium ions show that the implanted helium ions tend to accumulate near the dislocation structures. Raman spectroscopy results show that the silicon substrate surface after helium ion implantation displayed tensile stress as indicated by the blue shift of Raman peaks.

Nanometric Cutting Mechanism of Cerium-Lanthanum Alloy

Cerium-lanthanum alloy is widely used in the green energy industry,and the nanoscale smooth surface of this material is in demand.Nanometric cutting is an effective approach to achieving the ultra-precision machining surface.Molecular dynamics(MD)simulation is usually used to reveal the atomic-scale details of the material removal mechanism in nanometric cutting.In this study,the effects of cutting speed and undeformed chip thickness(UCT)on cutting force and subsurface deformation of the cerium-lanthanum alloy during nanometric cutting are analyzed through MD simulation.The results illustrate that the dislocations,stacking faults,and phase transitions occur in the subsurface during cutting.The dislocations are mainly Shockley partial dislocation,and the increase of temperature and pressure during the cutting process leads to the phase transformation ofγ-Ce(FCC)intoβ-Ce(HCP)andδ-Ce(BCC).β-Ce is mainly distributed in the stacking fault area,whileδ-Ce is distributed in the boundary area between the dislocation atoms andγ-Ce atoms.The cutting speed and UCT affect the distribution of subsurface damage.A thicker deformed layer including dislocations,stacking faults and phase-transformation atoms on the machined surface is generated with the increase in the cutting speed and UCT.Simultaneously,the cutting speed and UCT significantly affect the cutting force,material removal rate,and generated subsurface state.The fluctuations in the cutting force are related to the generation and disappearance of dislocations.This research first studied the nanometric cutting mechanism of the cerium-lanthanum ally,providing a theoretical basis for the development of ultra-precision machining techniques of these materials.

Mixed polarization in determining the film thickness of a silicon sphere by spectroscopic ellipsometry

The effect of a spherical shape on the measurement result of spectroscopic ellipsometry （SE） is analyzed, and a method to eliminate this effect is proposed. Based on the simulation result of the SE measurement on a silicon sphere by ray tracking, we find that the sphere makes the parallel incident beam of the SE be divergent after reflection, and the measurement error of the SE caused by this phenomenon is explained by the mixed polarization theory. By settling an aperture in front of the detector of the SE, we can almost eliminate the error. For the silicon sphere with a diameter of 94 mm used in the Avogadro project, the thickness error of the oxide layer caused by the spherical shape can be reduced from 0.73 nm to 0.04 nm by using the proposed method. The principle of the method and the results of the experimental verification are presented.

Confocal photoluminescence characterization of silicon-vacancy color centers in 4H-SiC fabricated by a femtosecond laser

Silicon-vacancy(VSi)centers in silicon carbide(SiC)are expected to serve as solid qubits,which can be used in quantum computing and sensing.As a new controllable color center fabrication method,femtosecond(fs)laserwriting has been gradually applied in the preparation of VSi in SiC.In this study,4H-SiCwas directlywritten by an fs laser and characterized at 293 K by atomic force microscopy,confocal photoluminescence(PL),and Raman spectroscopy.PL signals of VSi were found and analyzed using 785 nm laser excitation by means of depth profiling and two-dimensional mapping.The influence of machining parameters on the VSi formation was analyzed,and the three-dimensional distribution of VSi defects in the fs laser writing of 4H-SiC was established.

Density functional theory calculation of the properties of carbon vacancy defects in silicon carbide

As a promisingmaterial for quantumtechnology,silicon carbide(SiC)has attracted great interest inmaterials science.Carbon vacancy is a dominant defect in 4H-SiC.Thus,understanding the properties of this defect is critical to its application,and the atomic and electronic structures of the defects needs to be identified.In this study,density functional theorywas used to characterize the carbon vacancy defects in hexagonal(h)and cubic(k)lattice sites.The zero-phonon line energies,hyperfine tensors,and formation energies of carbon vacancies with different charge states(2−,−,0,+and 2+)in different supercells(72,128,400 and 576 atoms)were calculated using standard Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof and Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof methods.Results show that the zero-phonon line energies of carbon vacancy defects are much lower than those of divacancy defects,indicating that the former is more likely to reach the excited state than the latter.The hyperfine tensors of VC+(h)and VC+(k)were calculated.Comparison of the calculated hyperfine tensor with the experimental results indicates the existence of carbon vacancies in SiC lattice.The calculation of formation energy shows that the most stable carbon vacancy defects in the material are VC 2+(k),VC+(k),VC(k),VC−(k)and VC 2−(k)as the electronic chemical potential increases.

Laser machining fundamentals:micro,nano,atomic and close-to-atomic scales

With the rapid development in advanced industries,such as microelectronics and optics sectors,the functional feature size of devises/components has been decreasing from micro to nanometric,and even ACS for higher performance,smaller volume and lower energy consumption.By this time,a great many quantum structures are proposed,with not only an extreme scale of several or even single atom,but also a nearly ideal lattice structure with no material defect.It is almost no doubt that such structures play critical role in the next generation products,which shows an urgent demand for the ACSM.Laser machining is one of the most important approaches widely used in engineering and scientific research.It is high-efficient and applicable for most kinds of materials.Moreover,the processing scale covers a huge range from millimeters to nanometers,and has already touched the atomic level.Laser–material interaction mechanism,as the foundation of laser machining,determines the machining accuracy and surface quality.It becomes much more sophisticated and dominant with a decrease in processing scale,which is systematically reviewed in this article.In general,the mechanisms of laser-induced material removal are classified into ablation,CE and atomic desorption,with a decrease in the scale from above microns to angstroms.The effects of processing parameters on both fundamental material response and machined surface quality are discussed,as well as theoretical methods to simulate and understand the underlying mechanisms.Examples at nanometric to atomic scale are provided,which demonstrate the capability of laser machining in achieving the ultimate precision and becoming a promising approach to ACSM.

Recent advances in micro/nanoscale intracellular delivery

Intracellular delivery enables the efficient drug delivery into various types of cells and has been a long-term studied topics in modern biotechnology.Targeted delivery with improved delivery efficacy requires considerable requirements.This process is a critical step in many cellular-level studies,such as cellular drug therapy,gene editing delivery,and a series of biomedical research applications.The emergence of micro-and nanotechnology has enabled themore accurate and dedicated intracellular delivery,and it is expected to be the next generation of controlled delivery with unprecedented flexibility.This review focuses on several represented micro-and nanoscale physical approaches for cell membrane disruption-based intracellular delivery and discusses the mechanisms,advantages,and challenges of each approach.We believe that the deeper understanding of intracellular delivery at such lowdimensionwould help the research community to develop more powerful delivery technologies for biomedical applications.

Anisotropy-Related Machining Characteristics in Ultra-Precision Diamond Cutting of Crystalline Copper

Deformation behavior at grain levels greatly affects the machining characteristics of crystalline materials.In the present work,we investigate the influence of material anisotropy on ultra-precision diamond cutting of single crystalline and polycrystalline copper by experiments and crystal plasticity finite element simulations.Specifically,diamond turning and in situ SEM orthogonal cutting experiments are carried out to provide direct experimental evidence of the material anisotropy-dependent cutting results in terms of machined surface morphology and chip profile.Corresponding numerical simulations with the analysis of built stress further validate experimental results and reveal the mechanisms governing the material anisotropy influence.The above findings provide insight into the fabrication of ultra-smooth surfaces of polycrystalline metals by ultraprecision diamond turning.

Digitally calibrated broadband dual-comb gases absorption spectral measurements

From the perspective of error compensation in the sampling process, a digital calibration algorithm was studied for the processing of spectral data in dual-comb spectroscopy. In this algorithm, dynamic adaptation to phase fluctuations maintained constant measurement results of spectral line positions and intensities. A mode-resolved broadband absorption spectrum was obtained over the full-spectral range of the comb with a Hertz linewidth of radio frequency comb mode.The measured spectrum spanned over 10 THz, which covered the multiplexed absorption regions of mixed gases, such as CO2 and N2 O. The calibrated interferograms were also capable of direct coherent averaging in the time domain. The transmittance obtained deviated from the theoretical calculation by no more than 2% in the whole spectral span.

Linear group delay spectral interferometry for full-range precision absolute length metrology

The optical frequency comb serves as a powerful tool for distance measurement by integrating numerous stable optical modes into interferometric measurements,enabling unprecedented absolute measurement precision.Nonetheless,due to the periodicity of its pulse train,the comb suffers from measurement dead zones and ambiguities,thereby impeding its practical applications.Here,we present a linear group delay spectral interferometer for achieving precise full-range distance measurements.By employing a carefully designed linear group delay(LGD)device for phase modulation of the comb modes,interference can occur and be easily measured at any position.Our approach effectively eliminates the dead zones and ambiguities in comb-based ranging,without the need for cumbersome auxiliary scanning reference devices or reliance on complex high-repetition-rate combs or high-resolution spectrometers.We conducted length metrology experiments using a mode-locked comb referenced to a rubidium clock,achieving a large nonambiguity range up to 0.3 m,covering the entire measurement period.The maximum deviation compared to a laser interferometer was less than 1.5μm,and the minimum Allan deviation during long-term measurements reached 5.47 nm at a 500 s averaging time.The approach ensures high accuracy while maintaining a simple structure,without relying on complex external devices,thereby propelling the practical implementation of comb-based length metrology.

Investigation of sorptive interactions between volatile organic compounds and supramolecules at dynamic oscillation using bulk acoustic wave resonator virtual sensor arrays

Supramolecules are considered as promising materials for volatile organic compounds(VOCs)sensing applications.The proper understanding of the sorption process taking place in host-guest interactions is critical in improving the pattern recognition of supramolecules-based sensing arrays.Here,we report a novel approach to investigate the dynamic host-guest recognition process by employing a bulk acoustic wave(BAW)resonator capable of producing multiple oscillation amplitudes and simultaneously recording multiple responses to VOCs.Self-assembled monolayers(SAMs)ofβ-cyclodextrin(β-CD)were modified on four BAW sensors to demonstrate the gas-surface interactions regarding oscillation amplitude and SAM length.Based on the method,a virtual sensor array(VSA)type electronic nose(e-nose)can be realized by pattern recognition of multiple responses at different oscillation amplitudes of a single sensor.VOCs analysis was realized respectively by using principal component analysis(PCA)for individual VOC identification and linear discriminant analysis(LDA)for VOCs mixtures classification.

Long-distance ranging with high precision using a soliton microcomb

Laser-based light detection and ranging(lidar)plays a significant role in both scientific and industrial areas.However,it is difficult for existing lidars to achieve high speed,high precision,and long distance simultaneously.Here,we demonstrate a high-performance lidar based on a chip-scaled soliton microcomb(SMC)that can realize all three specialties simultaneously.Aided by the excellent properties of ultrahigh repetition rate and the smooth envelope of the SMC,traditional optical frequency comb(OFC)-based dispersive interferometry is heavily improved and the measuring dead zone induced by the mismatch between the repetition rate of the OFC and resolution of the optical spectrum analyzer is totally eliminated.Combined with an auxiliary dual-frequency phase-modulated laser range finder,the none-dead-zone measurable range ambiguity is extended up to 1500 m.The proposed SMC lidar is experimentally implemented in both indoor and outdoor environment.In the outdoor baseline field,real-time,high-speed(up to 35 k Hz)measurement of a long distance of^1179 m is achieved with a minimum Allan deviation of 5.6μm at an average time of 0.2 ms(27 nm at an average time of 1.8 s after high-pass filtering).The present SMC lidar approaches a compact,fast,high-precision,and none-dead zone long-distance ranging system,aimed at emerging applications of frontier basic scientific research and advances in industrial manufacturing.

Generation of longitudinally polarized multi-segment optical needles by tightly focusing RPBG beam

In this paper,an effective method to garner sub-wavelength longitudinally polarized multi-segment optical needle sequence by using a specially designed hybrid filter(HF) in a high numerical aperture(NA) objective focusing system is proposed.The HF is coupled by a binary phase transmission function and a multi-segment modulation function,and the binary phase filter is designed by the particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm and acts on the radially polarized Bessel Gaussian(RPBG) beam to obtain a longitudinally polarized optical needle with long depth of focus(DOF,6λ) and a sub-wavelength transverse spot size(0.430λ).The optical needle is with high uniformity of 98% and high beam quality of 96%,and the negligible sidelobe is 15%.On this basis,the multi-segment optical needle sequence with tunable spacing or number can be realized by the multi-segment modulation function.It is found that the HF makes the generation of multi-segment optical needle sequence more flexible and reliable.This research has broad application prospects in material processing,particle acceleration,particle capture and other fields.

Sub-nanometer finishing of polycrystalline tin by inductively coupled plasma-assisted cutting

Polycrystalline tin is an ideal excitation material for extreme ultraviolet light sources.However,the existence of grain boundary(GB)limits the surface roughness of polycrystalline tin after single-point diamond turning(SPDT).In this work,a novel method termed inductively coupled plasma(ICP)-assisted cutting was developed for the sub-nanometer finishing of polycrystalline tin.The relationship between ICP power,processing time,and modification depth was established by thermodynamic simulation,and the fitted heat transfer coefficient of polycrystalline tin was 540 W/(m2·K).The effects of large-thermal-gradient ICP treatment on the microstructure of polycrystalline tin were studied.After 0.9 kW ICP processing for 3.0 s,corresponding to the temperature gradient of 0.30 K/μm,the grain size of polycrystalline tin was expanded from a size of approximately 20-80μm to a millimeter scale.The Taguchi method was used to investigate the effects of rotational speed,depth of cut,and feed rate on SPDT.Experiments conducted based on the ICP system indicated that the plasma-assisted cutting method promoted the reduction of the influence of GB steps on the finishing of polycrystalline tin,thereby achieving a surface finish from 8.53 to 0.80 nm in Sa.The results of residual stress release demonstrated that the residual stress of plasma-assisted turning processing after 504 h stress release was 10.7 MPa,while that of the turning process without the ICP treatment was 41.6 MPa.