Abstract

Surface metrology is developing rapidly. In addition to being an essential part of engineering, it is taking on an important role in nanotechnology. However, the future requirements for the two disciplines are different. In engineering, traditional applications are mainly in tribology in which often two surfaces are involved, although many single-body applications such as optical scatter are also important. The scale of size of the workpiece is usually at the macro scale and the features such as the roughness is in the micron or submicron range. Usually it is the height information of the surface that is considered most relevant to performance. Also, the surfaces often have shapes due to rotational and other dynamic requirements. These traditional characteristics are being partly supplanted because of the introduction of surfaces which have a lateral structure such as grooves or dimples, rather than roughness, and a form which is non-Euclidean, i.e., free-form which can be of very complex shape rather than flat or round.