Abstract

When investigating the surface morphology of thin films and substrates the following problems have to be taken into account:

- The microtopography as a two-dimensional roughness profile consists of various structural features the form, size, and distribution of which depend on the substrate and film material, polishing process, deposition procedure, and environmental conditions.

- Anisotropy and local variations of the roughness profile are likely to occur.

- The characterization techniques should be applicable to quite a large variety of different surface structures such as superpolished substrates, columnar film morphology, corroded surfaces with pronounced roughness etc.

- All techniques of surface roughness measurement are subject to bandwidth limitation. Hence, the information available depends on both the method applied and the particular properties of the sample.

© 1995 Optical Society of America