Evaluation of environmentally safe cleaning agents for diamond turned optics

Precision machining of metal surfaces using diamond turning has increased greatly in popularity at LANL in recent years. Similar techniques are used extensively to manufacture metal mirrors for use in laser applications. The diamond turned surfaces are easily damaged, making the selection of a cleaning agent very critical. These surfaces have been traditionally cleaned using Trichloroethane (TCA) to remove residual oil remaining from the machining process. The TCA was then removed with an ethanol rinse, leaving a residue free surface. Recently, however, TCA was pronounced environmentally unsafe. Consequently, we are searching for an environmentally safe cleaning agent for these diamond turned metal optics. The concern with using alternative solvents is the potential for residual surface films that produce reflectivity changes related to a combination of wavelength, surface coverage, film thickness and dielectric properties. Therefore, we have initiated a program for testing the effectiveness of a variety of environmentally safe solvents used to clean diamond turned optical surfaces. Our basic test plan consists of comparing a number of environmentally safe solvents against the TCA/ethanol cleaning system. We have identified twelve candidate solvents, but have only been able to perform a partial test on one of them to date. This paper discusses the results obtained to data using this solvent known as P F (1). 3 refs., 13 figs