Microdensitometer analysis of electron micrographs of shadowed surface replicas: A powerful method in surface structure characterization

From the micrograph density of a shadowed carbon replica of a surface it is possible by using a microdensitometer analysis to rebuild line by line the profile of that surface. The different stages necessary for such a reconstruction are summarized. Various reconstructions connected with metallic, optical, dielectric and biological surfaces are presented. Those restored profiles are used to estimate the moments (particularly the second one named the autocovariance function) that summarize statistical information on the various characteristic lengths describing the surface.