Patent ID: 6875079

Claim:
A method of polishing a surface of an inhomogeneous material so as to reduce surface roughness of said surface at a preselected temperature, said inhomogeneous material comprising two different components present on said surface to be polished, said two different components having different erosion rates and different thermal expansion coefficients, wherein said method comprises the steps of: a) selecting a working temperature at which said surface of said inhomogeneous material is polished so that differing erosion of said two different components is compensated so that surface roughness is thereby reduced because of differing thermal expansion of said different components due to said different thermal expansion coefficients when said inhomogeneous material is at said preselected temperature; and b) polishing said surface of said inhomogeneous material at said working temperature; whereby said surface roughness of said surface is minimized when said inhomogeneous material at said preselected temperature.