Recent developments in surface roughness characterization

Abstract

The author presents an overview of evaluation techniques that are appropriate for characterizing the surface roughness of optical thin films and surfaces. These include microscopes ranging from low power optical microscopes to scanning probe microscopes that can measure the topography of individual atoms or groups of atoms, optical non-contact and mechanical contact profilers, some of which can give topographic maps of surface areas, and total integrated scattering and angle-resolved scattering that yield statistical properties of surfaces. Theories are needed to relate scattering to surface roughness; these are valid only for certain types of roughness. Examples are given showing how various surface evaluation techniques can be used for characterizing selected surfaces.