In this chapter, it is known that IBF has five features and advantages: (1) high figuring precision, (2) highly predicable or stable, (3) noncontact figuring, (4) good material removal function, and (5) no or minimized support structure print effect. These make it to be an ideal machining method to figure ultraprecision optical component. Likely the conventional CCOS method, material removal function modeling, contouring algorithm, and realization of IBF process are its key technologies.
However, it has some shortcomings, such as working in vacuum chamber, component heating, difficulty of improving surface roughness because of the ion “sandblasting” effect at the atomic level, slow material removal rate, etc.
So, using IBF to machining optical component, the following problems would be deeply thought about:

1. The component material characteristics, if it is suitable to machining by IBF.
2. As one of the controllable compliant tools, it is well to adapt different asphere shape to improve its contour accuracy, but it is difficult to control its middle- and high-spatial-frequency error.
3. The ion “sandblasting” effect at the atomic level may make the surface roughness worse, so the ion beam parameter, total machining time or machining cycle, total removed material volume, etc., would be suitably selected.

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