Surface roughness measurement with optical fibers

The development of a new method of surface roughness measurement utilizing optical fibers is discussed., Two general types of fiber-optic roughness measurement are presented, intensity-based and polarization-based, which require use of either multimode or single-mode polarization-preserving optical fibers. Some configurations, including different constructions of a fiber-optic head, and the specific requirements for optical fibers are also discussed. The data obtained from the intensity and polarization measurements are correlated with some roughness parameters.