Regimes of Surface Roughness Measurable with Light Scattering

Published

January 1, 1993

Author(s)

Theodore V. Vorburger, Egon Marx, T Lettieri

Abstract

In this paper we summarize a number of previous experiments on the measurement of the roughness of metallic surfaces by light scattering. We identify several regimes that permit measurement of different surface parameters and functions, and we establish approximate limits for each regime. Using a straightforward criterion, we calculate that the smooth-surface regime, in which the angular distribution of scattered light is closely related to the power spectral density of the roughness, ranges over 0?< s/l?<?0.05, where s is the rms roughness and l is the optical wavelength. Above that the surface autocorrelation function may be calculated from a Fourier transform of the angular distribution over 0?<?s/l?<?0.14. Then comes the specular regime where the specular beam can still be identified and measured over 0?<?s/l?<?0.3. For all these regimes and for rougher surfaces too, the rms width of the scatter distribution is proportional to the rms slope of the surface.

Citation

Applied Optics

Volume

32(19)

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

angle-resolved scattering, autocorrelation, autocovariance, bidirectional reflectance distribution function, light scattering, power spectral density, rms roughness, rms slope, specular beam, surface roughness

Citation

Vorburger, T. , Marx, E. and Lettieri, T. (1993), Regimes of Surface Roughness Measurable with Light Scattering, Applied Optics (Accessed October 10, 2025)