A New Method for Measuring Scattering of Light from Optical Surfaces with Random Roughness

In this letter we report a new method for measuring light scattered from optically rough surfaces. By collecting scattered light in a given solid angle, the measurement system does not require a detection unit with an extremely large dynamic range. This in turn significantly simplifies the system configuration. Measurements of scattering close to specular reflection (the so-called small angle or near-specular scattering) also can be completed without any difficulty. Unlike in the common angle resolved scattering (ARS) measurement system, in this system a linear movement instead of rotation is adopted to scan scattered light. In this way, the angular resolution of scattering measurements is independent of the resolution of the translation stages and may be adjusted.