title: Theoretical measurement uncertainty of white-light interferometry on rough surfaces.
abstract: A great advantage of the white-light interferometry is that it can be used for profile objects with a rough surface. A speckle pattern that arises in the image plane allows one to observethe interference; however, this pattern is also the source of the measurement uncertainty. We derive the theoretical limits of the longitudinal uncertainty by virtue of the first-order statistics of thespeckle pattern. It is shown that this uncertainty depends on the surface roughness of the measured object only; it does not depend on the setup parameters.
authors.affiliation: Joint Laboratory of Optics of Palacky University and Institute of Physics of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Tr. 17. listopadu 50, CZ-772 07 Olomouc, Czech Republic. pavlicek@sloup.upol.cz
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pavlicek
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Soubusta