介绍了蓝宝石材料的亚表面损伤形成机制。考虑碳化硼磨料可产生较小亚表面损伤的优点，本文基于游离磨料研磨方式，研究了不同粒度碳化硼磨料研磨后蓝宝石晶体的亚表面损伤。利用KOH化学腐蚀处理技术，对研磨后的样品进行了刻蚀；通过特定的腐蚀坑图像间接反映了蓝宝石晶体的亚表面损伤形貌特征，获得了W20、W10和W5碳化硼磨料产生的亚表面损伤深度，得到了在不同刻蚀时间下蓝宝石亚表面损伤形貌、表面粗糙度和刻蚀速率。研究结果显示：游离碳化硼磨料研磨造成的蓝宝石晶体的亚表面损伤密度相当显著，但损伤深度并不大，其随磨料粒度的增大而增大，W20、W10和W5粒度的磨料研磨后产生的亚表面损伤深度分别为7.4, 4.1和2.9 μm，约为磨料粒度的1/2。得到的结果表明采用碳化硼磨料研磨有利于获得低亚表面损伤的蓝宝石晶片，而采用由大到小的磨料逐次研磨可以快速获得低亚表面损伤的蓝宝石晶片。

The formation mechanism of subsurface damage of sapphire materials was introduced. In consideration of the boron carbide abrasives with advantage of smaller subsurface damage, the subsurface damage of a sapphire crystal after lapping by boron carbide abrasives with different particle sizes was studied based on the loose abrasive lapping method. The lapped sapphire wafer was etched by KOH chemical corrosion processing technology, the subsurface damage morphology of the sapphire crystal was indirectly reflected by specific etch pitimage and the subsurface damage depths were achieved with gritparticle sizes W20, W10 and W5 by loose boron carbide abrasive lapping. The subsurface damage morphology, surface roughness and etching rate of the sapphire crystal at different etching time were obtained also. The results show that the subsurface damage density of sapphire crystal lapped by loose boron carbide abrasive is remarkable, but the damage depth is lower, and it increases with of the abrasive sizes. After lapping by looseboron carbide abrasives with gritparticle sizes of W20, W10 and W5, the depths of subsurface damage are 7.4, 4.1 and 2.9 μm, respectively, which is about 1/2 of the size of abrasive. It indicates that the lapping method with boron carbide abrasives is beneficial to the reduction of subsurface damage of the sapphire. In addition, the sapphire wafer with low subsurface damage can be achieved quickly by lapping methods with abrasive particle sizes from larger to smaller.