Light scattering as a technique for measuring the roughness of optical surfaces

Measurements have been made of the angular variations and magnitudes of laser light scattered from optical surfaces. The experimental results could not be fitted to theoretical formulae. It is concluded that the surface structures of optically polished samples are not adequately represented by the statistical parameters of the models discussed by other authors and thus quantitative information about the surface roughness cannot be obtained by this technique until new theories are developed.