Determination of the basic parameters characterizing the roughness of metal surfaces by laser light scattering

A method of determination of the basic morphology parameters of rough metal surfaces with periodic and random components of surface roughness by means of laser light scattering is presented. The method is based on interpretin g the angular distribution of the laser light intensity scattered from such surfaces. The theory of the method is based on the scalar theory of diffra ction and basic theorems of data processing. The new, more general way of i nterpreting experimental data is specified. It can also be used for the ana lysis of samples with quasiperiodic and random components of surface roughn ess; this is the case when standard measurement by means of a stylus profil ometer can give incorrect results.