Abstract

An interferometric microscope system is described which can be used for surface structure analysis. The system is based upon an optical phase modulation technique, described below, which obtains surface heights at each detector point to a precision of a few Angstroms, with a lateral resolution of approximately 2 microns. The system is comprised of a Mirau interferometer mounted on a standard microscope, a linear 256 element CCD array, a Z-80 microprocessor which controls the data acquisition and phase measurement calculations, and an HP-85 micro-computer. At the operator's option the HP-85 can subtract average height, tilt, and focus from the surface height data; generate a surface profile, a histogram of the surface height distribution, and form the autocovariance of the surface profile. The operator can select hardcopy of the plots on thermal paper or x-y plotter output.

© 1981 Optical Society of America