BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for ion milling, and more particularly relates to methods and apparatus for smoothing a surface using ion milling.

This application is related to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/873,474 filed Dec. 7, 2006 and Application No. 60/888,686 filed Feb. 7, 2007; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/682,098 filed Mar. 5, 2007 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/779,369, filed Mar. 3, 2006, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/810,921, filed Jun. 5, 2006, and which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/863,638, filed Jun. 8, 2004; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/682,121, filed Mar. 5, 2007 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/779,369, filed Mar. 3, 2006, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/810,921, filed Jun. 5, 2006; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entireties by reference.

