METHOD FOR VISUAL OPTICAL INSPECTION OF SURFACE Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G01B11/30 G01N21/958 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method for visual optical inspection of a surface with the eye or using a microscope involves placing, between a reference surface and the inspected surface, a liquid layer having thickness of not more than 10 mcm and a refraction index greater than that of optical components in contact with said liquid layer, transmitting into said layer laser radiation propagating in the layer with total internal reflection, and observing light concentrated and scattered on anomalies and defects of the surface. Polarised laser radiation can be transmitted into the liquid layer and light scattered from anomalies and defects is observed through a cross-polarised analyser.

EFFECT: enabling detection of local surface anomalies with depth of less than 0,05 mcm on large areas without expensive equipment.

2 cl, 3 dwg