Deterministic hydrodynamic polishing with HyDRa requires a precise control of polishing parameters, such as propelling air pressure, slurry density, slurry flux and tool height. We describe the HyDRa polishing system and prove how precise, deterministic polishing can be achieved in terms of the control of these parameters. The polishing results of an 84 cm hyperbolic mirror are presented to illustrate how the stability of these parameters is important to obtain high-quality surfaces.

We present a hydrodynamic, deterministic polishing tool (HyDRa) based on the fluid-jet polishing (FJP) principle. In contrast to other FJP methods, the polishing flux is accelerated with pressurized air and then expelled at high velocity, forming a radial, grazing abrasive pattern that exerts no net force of the tool on the surface to be polished, since the vacuum and thrust forces that are created at the tool's output balance each other out. The grazing effect minimizes microroughness, making it appropriate for finishing high-quality surfaces. The principle of operation as well as polishing results of a series of small etalon plates are presented.

We have designed and installed a new set of actuators for the suspension of the primary mirror of the 2.1-m telescope at San Pedro Mártir. This active optics system has allowed us to correct low-order aberrations identified by several wave-front analysis techniques.

Previous implementations of the iterative phase shifting method, in which the phase of a test object is computed from measurements using a phase shifting interferometer with unknown positions of the reference, do not provide an accurate way of knowing when convergence has been attained. We present a new approach to this method that allows us to deterministically identify convergence. The method is tested with a home-built Fizeau interferometer that measures optical surfaces polished to lambda/100 using the Hydra tool. The intrinsic quality of the measurements is better than 0.5 nm. Other possible applications for this technique include fringe projection or any problem where phase shifting is involved.

HyDRa is a hydrodynamic radial polishing tool ideal for the corrective lapping and fine polishing of diverse materials by means of an accelerated abrasive flux. The roughness of an optical surface is analysed for a continuous manufacturing process, beginning with the basic generation steps up to a finished optical surface. These results were obtained using a Linnik interferometer.