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

Abstract

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 20–80 μm 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.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

plasma-assisted cutting / polycrystalline tin / single-point diamond turning / surface roughness

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Nomenclature

Abbreviations
ACS	Atomic and close-to-atomic scale
Al	Aluminium
ANOVA	Analysis of variance
Ar	Argon
Cu	Copper
EBSD	Electron backscatter diffraction
EBSM	Electron beam selective melting
GB	Grain boundary
ICP	Inductively coupled plasma
PaC	Plasma-assisted cutting
RF	Radio frequency
SEM	Scanning electron microscopy
S/N	Signal-to-noise
SPDT	Single-point diamond turning
UCT	Undeformed chip thickness
WL	White light
Variables
A	Height of Gaussian function
B	Offset of the Gaussian function along the y-axis
CP	Plasma’s specific heat capacity
Cp1	Tin’s specific thermal capacity
F	Lorentz force
GranT	Initial temperature gradient
h	Coefficient of heat transfer
I	Matrix of identity
k	Thermal conductivity
k1	Thermal conductivity of tin
n	Normal vector
p	Pressure
q0	Internal heat flow
q	Plasma’s heat flux conductivity vector
q1	Vector of heat flux conductivity
Q	Source of heat
Q1	Heat source of tin
Qp	Work of pressure
Qted	Thermoelastic damping
Qvd	Work of viscous dissipation
T	Plasma temperature
T1	Temperature of tin
Tbottom	Bottom temperature of polycrystalline tin
Text	ICP action section temperature
Text0	Central temperature of the heat source
u	Plasma’s velocity vector
u1	Tin’s velocity vector
α	Central angle of each point on the Debye ring
\rho	Plasma’s fluid density
{\rho }_{\text{1}}	Density of tin
\mu	Dynamic viscosity
σ	Standard deviation of the Gaussian function

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52035009), the Science Challenge Project, China (Grant No. TZ2018006-0201-01), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB1102203), and the “111” project by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. B07014).

Funding Note

Open Access funding provided by the IReL Consortium.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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