能场辅助超精密金刚石切削技术的研究进展 (特邀)

Significance Ultra-precision diamond cutting technology, with its high accuracy and superior surface finish, plays a vital role in the manufacturing of key components in optics, semiconductors, medical devices, and aerospace. However, with the emergence of new high-performance difficult-to-machine materials, traditional diamond cutting faces challenges such as rapid tool wear, subsurface damage, and limited processability. Energy-field-assisted machining, which integrates laser, ultrasonic vibration, or magnetic fields into the cutting process, offers a promising solution to enhance material removal mechanisms, improve surface integrity, and extend tool life. By enabling the high-precision machining of materials previously considered unmachinable, such as high-entropy alloys, hardened steels, and brittle ceramics and et al., this technology pushes the boundaries of advanced manufacturing. It is foreseeable that energy-field-assisted ultra-precision diamond cutting will continue to evolve from conventional mechanical removal toward intelligent, hybrid, and controllable processing, which makes a comprehensive survey on its research progress and future directions highly meaningful. Progress First, the fundamental mechanisms of different energy-field-assisted diamond cutting technologies are introduced, including ultrasonic vibration-assisted cutting, laser-assisted cutting, and magnetic field-assisted cutting. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted machining achieves intermittent cutting through high-frequency low-amplitude tool vibration, which reduces cutting forces, suppresses crack propagation, and extends tool life. Laser-assisted machining utilizes localized thermal softening to enhance the ductile removal of brittle materials, enabling high surface quality and increased critical cutting depth. Magnetic field-assisted cutting improves machining stability and surface integrity through mechanisms such as magnetic flux alignment, eddy current damping, and magneto-plastic effects. Extensive research has been conducted to understand the material removal mechanisms under different energy fields. Finite element simulation and molecular dynamics simulation are widely adopted to reveal macro- and micro-scale cutting behaviors, including stress distribution, temperature fields, dislocation motion, and phase transformation. Experimental studies have demonstrated significant improvements in surface roughness, subsurface damage reduction, and tool wear suppression across various difficult-to-machine materials, such as high-entropy alloys, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, nickel-based superalloys, and optical crystals. The application of energy-field-assisted diamond cutting has progressed from laboratory validation to industrial implementation. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted systems have been integrated into ultra-precision machine tools for fabricating optical freeform surfaces and micro-structured arrays. Laser-assisted diamond cutting has enabled the precision machining of hardened mold steels and brittle ceramics without post-polishing. Magnetic field-assisted cutting shows promise in stabilizing the machining of titanium alloys and single-crystal copper. Despite these advances, challenges remain in system integration, parameter optimization, tool durability, and process controllability. Through a comprehensive survey, this paper identifies key development trends in energy-field-assisted ultra-precision machining, including the standardization of systems and parameters, the expansion of applications to new high-performance materials such as fourth-generation semiconductors and advanced optical meta-materials, and the continued advancement in multi-scale simulation accuracy. These trends collectively point towards more stable, predictable, and widely applicable manufacturing processes for next-generation components in fields such as quantum devices, advanced optics, and integrated circuits.Finally, this review also outlines future research directions focused on overcoming current limitations, such as improving the stability of high-frequency vibration systems, optimizing laser-to-cutting parameter matching, and elucidating the underlying mechanisms of magnetic field effects. Emphasis is placed on advancing multi-scale simulation accuracy and promoting the application of these technologies in next-generation high-precision manufacturing, with the goal of achieving atomic-scale surface integrity and damage-free machining for critical components in quantum devices, advanced optics, and integrated circuits. Conclusions and Prospects Energy-field-assisted ultra-precision diamond cutting effectively addresses the limitations of conventional machining in processing difficult-to-cut materials. Techniques such as ultrasonic vibration, laser, and magnetic field assistance significantly reduce cutting forces, suppress tool wear, improve surface integrity, and enable precision machining of hard-brittle, high-strength, and thermally sensitive materials. Looking forward, research should focus on extending these methods to emerging materials like high-performance alloys and fourth-generation semiconductors, deepening the understanding of micro-scale material interactions, developing high-fidelity multi-scale simulations, and integrating AI for intelligent, adaptive machining systems. These advancements will further push the boundaries of ultra-precision manufacturing toward atomic-scale accuracy and autonomous operation.