Characterization of surface roughness by speckle pattern-an experimental approach

Although it originates from the ancient Greeks, optics still arouses a lot of scientific interest, mainly due to the technological innovation associated with it. One of its most interesting applications is related to optical metrology and the characterization of materials through optical techniques....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics education 2021-03, Vol.56 (2), p.25013
Main Authors: Souza, P V S, Rodrigues, D P, Silva, L da, Huguenin, J A O, Balthazar, W F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
fractal dimension
Fractal geometry
Light
optical physics
Optics
Physics
roughness
Science Equipment
Science Experiments
Scientific Concepts
speckle pattern
Speckle patterns
Surface roughness
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Summary:Although it originates from the ancient Greeks, optics still arouses a lot of scientific interest, mainly due to the technological innovation associated with it. One of its most interesting applications is related to optical metrology and the characterization of materials through optical techniques. While some of these processes can be explained in a simplified way using a few of the fundamental principles of physics, there are hardly any proposals whose objective is to discuss this topic at a basic level. Accordingly, we present a low-cost experiment that allows the characterization of surface roughness using the fractal dimension of the speckle pattern associated with the light scattered by a surface. For simplicity, the entire activity is adaptable to the most diverse school situations. Moreover, it allows the discussion of many fundamental physics concepts and provides students with an experience similar to that experienced by scientists.
ISSN:0031-9120
1361-6552
DOI:10.1088/1361-6552/abd2cc