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Metal is an early telescope mirror material, it was later replaced by glass which has lower thermal expansion coefficient.
However, for observing the sun, these glass materials in the primary mirror are affected by the sun's intense radiation, its
temperature rises rapidly, but which conducts heat slowly. The temperature difference between mirror and ambient air is
so large that causing the air turbulence which has affected the observation precision. While the metal material has better
thermal conductivity characteristics, it can greatly improve the problems caused by air turbulence. This paper analyzes
the characteristics of the various mirror materials, and then makes a rust-proof aluminum alloy 5A05 as the mirror
substrate material. For the major deficiencies of the soft aluminum surface which is not suitable for polishing, this paper
presents a method of electroless nickel plating to improve its surface properties. After the mirror go through a thermal
shock, the upper and lower levels of metal CTE don't match with each other, which leads to mirror deformation and
warping. The bimetallic effect has been illustrated by the theory of beam element and give a result of elementary
approximated. The analysis shows that the displacement deformation of the upper and lower layers of metal which is
caused by thermal shock is smaller when the CTE is closer. In the experiments, a spherical aluminum mirrors with the
substrate of 5A05 aluminum alloy, diameter of 110mm, the radius of curvature of 258.672mm is manufactured in
classical technique. And it ultimately achieves optical mirror-polished precision. Besides, the long-term thermal stability
experimental study of the aluminum mirrors proved that Al-infrared solar telescope primary mirror meets the needs of
the long-term observation during use.
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