Abstract

For several years, we have been developing a new method of surface structure characterization.¹ This method, based on microdensitometer analysis of shadowed surface replicas, has proved powerful, both in topography restitution and determination of statistical parameters for various surfaces such as thin evaporated films. It also proved to be particularly useful for a microroughness study. An extensive surface investigation of a silver film evaporated on a supersmooth substrate was done to explain persistent discrepancies between our results and those obtained with plasmon methods.² We show that, in certain circumstances, it is possible to obtain values approaching those that the authors got using a plasmon method.

© 1987 Optical Society of America