Surface roughness measurement using dichromatic speckle pattern: an experimental study.

Surface roughness is studied experimentally by making use of the statistical properties of dichromatic speckle patterns. The rms intensity difference between two speckle patterns produced by two argon laser lines are analyzed in the far field as functions of the object surface roughness and the difference in the two wavenumbers of the illuminating light. By applying previously derived formulas, the rms surface roughness is obtained from rms intensity differences. Glass and metal rough surfaces are used. Other than the scattering arrangement, the experimental setup has a simple spectrometric system and an electronic analyzing circuit.