There are provided a method of superflattening an oxide crystal that is soluble
neither with acid nor with alkaline, a method of making a ReCa4O(BO3)3
family oxide single crystal thin film using the superflattening method, a ReCa4O(BO3)3
family oxide single crystal thin film having a SHG property, a superflattening
method for light incident/emitting surfaces, and a defect assessing method for
oxide crystals. The surface of an oxide crystal that is soluble neither with acid
nor with alkaline is reduced with a reducing agent, the reduced oxide crystal surface
is dissolved with an aqueous solution of acid or alkaline, the surface dissolved
oxide crystal is heat-treated in the atmosphere, whereby the surface of an oxide
crystal that is soluble neither with acid nor with alkaline is superflattened to
an atomic level. According to this method, a chemically stable oxide which because
of its complexity in both composition and structure is soluble neither with acid
nor with alkaline and is insoluble even with a fluoric acid is allowed by reduction
to be converted into a simpler oxide conventionally soluble with hydrochloric,
nitric or sulfuric acid; hence a surface of its crystal is rendered capable of
dissolving. Then, heat-treating the dissolved surface in the atmosphere at a suitable
temperature for a suitable time period allows surface atoms to be rearranged and
the surface to be superflattened to an atomic level. The present invention is applicable
to the technical fields that require ultraviolet laser light, especially as core
technologies of optical devices applied to optical information processing, optical
communication or the like.