Hydration Polishing of Sapphire

This paper discussed the polishing characteristic of single crystal sapphire (0001) when using 100°C vapor as polishing liquid and cedar wood as polishing pad. Surface roughness and scratch were compared before and after hydration polishing process. For 20 hours hydration polishing, both XRD and surface texture show that sapphire surface was changed in micro-structure and texture, even with minor scratch on the hydration polished surface, surface roughness could be decreased to Rt6.74 in X direction and Rt7.64nm in Y direction, it is about 2 nm surface layer was removed during hydration polishing.