1. A method for producing a replication master (10) having a surface with low roughness, comprising the steps of:
forming said master (10) such as to have a desired external surface shape which at least partially corresponds to a counterform of a surface of an object (18, 20) to be produced by replication;
treating said external surface of said master (10) to obtain a predetermined surface roughness value; and
coating at least a part of said master (10) with a smoothening layer (16),
wherein said smoothening layer (16) is made of a soluble material.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said smoothening layer (16) is applied by dip-coating or spin-coating said master (10) with a liquid smoothening material and hardening said smoothening material.
3. The method according to claim 1, which furthermore comprises the step of coating at least a part of said master (10) with a release layer.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said release layer is made of a soluble material.
5. The method according to claim 1, which furthermore comprises the step of coating at least one additional smoothening layer on top of or under said soluble smoothening layer (16).
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein at least one of said additional smoothening layers is made of a non-soluble material.
7. The method according to claim 5, which furthermore comprises the step of coating a thin spacer layer, preferably a thin metallic spacer layer, between at least two adjacent smoothening layers.
8. A replication method for producing a smooth object (18, 20) having a low surface roughness, comprising the steps of:
producing a replication master (10) by a method according to claim 1 or claim 3;
coating at least a part of said master (10) with an object material such that the surface of said object (18, 20) corresponds to a counterform of said master (10); and
releasing said object (18, 20) from said master (10).
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said releasing step comprises dissolving at least one of said smoothening layer (16) and said release layer on top of said master (10) by a solvent.
10. The method according to claim 8, which furthermore comprises the step of providing glue (20) to at least one of said object (18, 20) and an object support (12) and glueing them together before executing said releasing step.
11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the amount of said glue (20) is chosen such as to fill gaps between said object (18, 20) and said object support (12).
12. The method according to claim 8, wherein said object (18) is an optical device (18), e.g. a reflection or transmission monolayer, bilayer or multilayer.
13. The method according to claim 12, which furthermore comprises the step of characterizing said optical device (18) on top of said master (10) before executing said releasing step.
14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said characterization step comprises performing a profilometry or reflectometry measurement of said optical device (18).
15. The method according to claim 8, wherein said object (20) is a substrate (20a) for an optical device (18).
16. The method according to claim 15 and claim 10, wherein said object material and the material of said glue (20) are identical.
17. The method according to claim 16, wherein said object material and said glue (20) comprise epoxy resin.
18. The method according to claim 15, which furthermore comprises the step of coating at least a part of said master (10) with a protection layer on top of said smoothening layer (16) or release layer before applying said object material.
19. A replication master (10) for producing a smooth object (18, 20) having a low surface roughness, said master (10) having an external surface shape which at least partially corresponds to a counterform of a surface of said object (18, 20), wherein at least a part of said master (10) is coated with a smoothening layer (16), wherein said smoothening layer (16) is made of a soluble material.
20. The replication master (10) according to claim 19, which is furthermore at least partially coated with a release layer.
21. The replication master (10) according to claim 20, wherein said release layer is made of a soluble material.
22. The method according to claim 1, wherein said soluble material is a soluble polymer material.
23. The method according to claim 22, wherein said soluble polymer material is a PMMA photoresist.
24. The method according to claim 4, wherein said release layer is made of a soluble polymer material.
25. The method according to claim 24, wherein said release layer is made of a PMMA photoresist.
26. The replication master according to claim 19, wherein said soluble material is a soluble polymer material.
27. The replication master according to claim 26, wherein said soluble polymer material is a PMMA photoresist.
28. The replication master (10) according to claim 21, wherein said release layer is made of a soluble polymer material.
29. The replication master (10) according to claim 28, wherein said release layer is made of a PMMA photoresist.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for continuously removing mercury from a supply of combustion gas, the method comprises:
introducing SO3 into the supply of combustion gas to oxidize at least a portion of elemental mercury within the supply of combustion gas into ionic mercury;
producing a turbulent flow of combustion gas to suspend particulate matter including fly ash contained in the supply of combustion gas;
absorbing a substantial portion of the mercury within the particulate matter;
filtering the supply of combustion gas to remove the particulate matter from the mercury; and
controlling the introduction of SO3 into the combustion gas based at least partially on at least one of an oxidation rate of mercury and an absorption rate of mercury.
2. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising recirculating the particulate matter into the combustion gas after removing the particulate matter from the mercury.
3. A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein recirculating the particulate matter further comprises controlling a mixing of a quantity of at least one sorbent with the particulate matter.
4. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein producing a turbulent flow of combustion gas uniformly distributes the particulate matter including a quantity of at least one sorbent.
5. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising mixing a particulate matter including a quantity of at least one externally introduced sorbent with the turbulent flow of combustion gas to suspend the particulate matter.
6. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein filtering the supply of combustion gas further comprises creating a fluidized bed of the particulate matter within an electrostatic fabric filter to filter the supply of combustion gas.
7. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising cooling the supply of combustion gas before producing the turbulent flow of combustion gas.
8. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising introducing at least one external sorbent into the turbulent flow of combustion gas.
9. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising exhausting a filtered combustion gas into the atmosphere.
10. A control system for controlling a continuous removal of mercury from a supply of combustion gas, said control system configured to:
adjust an injection rate of SO3 into the supply of combustion gas to oxidize at least a portion of elemental mercury within the supply of combustion gas into ionic mercury based on an absorption rate of mercury by a particulate matter suspended in the combustion gas.
11. A control system in accordance with claim 10 further configured to recirculate the particulate matter into the combustion gas after filtering the particulate matter within an electrostatic fabric filter.
12. A control system in accordance with claim 10 further configured to adjust a quantity of water injected into the supply of combustion gas to cool the supply of combustion gas.
13. A control system in accordance with claim 10 further configured to meter a quantity of sorbent within the particulate matter based on a level of mercury removal from the supply of combustion gas.
14. A system for continuously removing mercury from a supply of combustion gas, said system comprising:
a combustion gas conditioning system introducing a quantity of SO3 into the supply of combustion gas;
an electrostatic precipitator in communication with said combustion gas conditioning system, said electrostatic precipitator adjusting an emission of fly ash from said electrostatic precipitator to control a quantity of mercury absorption sites available downstream;
a cooling device in communication with said electrostatic precipitator, said cooling device cooling the supply of combustion gas as the supply of combustion gas flows through said cooling device;
a section producing a turbulent flow of combustion gas;
an injector controllably injecting a quantity of external sorbent into the turbulent flow of combustion gas, the turbulent flow of combustion gas uniformly distributing a particulate matter including the quantity of sorbent;
an electrostatic fabric filter positioned downstream of said injector, said electrostatic fabric filter filtering the particulate matter removed from the turbulent flow of combustion gas and removing the particulate matter and the quantity of sorbent from a quantity of mercury absorbed in the quantity of sorbent; and
a recirculating device providing communication between said electrostatic fabric filter and said injector, said recirculating device circulating the filtered particulate matter into said injector.