Patent ID: 6844927

Claim:
An apparatus for optically inspecting a sample with an optical beam, comprising: a beam generator for directing an incident optical beam onto the sample; a detector positioned to receive at least a portion of an output beam from the sample, the output beam being in response to the incident beam directed at the sample, the detector being operable to generate an output signal based on the output beam; imaging optics for directing the output beam to the detector; a first programmable spatial light modulator (SLM) positioned within an optical path of the output beam and configurable to adjust a phase and amplitude profile of the output beam before the output beam reaches the detector; and a control system operable to configure the first SLM to alter the phase and amplitude profile of the output beam so as to substantially eliminate aberrations from the output beam caused by the imaging optics and to determine a characteristic of the sample based on the detected output signal.