A series of experiments were conducted to study the effects of slurry components on surface characteristics as well as material removal rate when polishing NiP/Al substrate disk. It was shown that with a finer and softer abrasive, a better surface roughness and waviness could be achieved but the material removal rate is relatively slow. Comparing with H2O2, oxidizer HNO3 results in higher material removal rate, better surface roughness but slightly degraded surface waviness. The increase in oxidizer concentration will increase material removal rate, slightly improve surface roughness but slightly degrade the surface waviness. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.