Patent ID: 7286239

Claim:
A method comprising: projecting a scanning beam of coherent radiation toward a surface of a sample to be optically evaluated; splitting off and polarizing a first portion of the scanning beam to serve as a polarized scanning reference beam; polarizing a remaining portion of the scanning beam and focusing a resulting polarized scanning probe beam onto the sample so as to produce scattered radiation from the sample; combining the scattered radiation and the reference beam so as to generate a combined beam that is characterized by interference between the scattered radiation and the reference beam; separating the combined beam into an in phase component and a quadrature component having a 90 degree phase difference therebetween, the in phase and quadrature components each characterized by interference between the scattered radiation and the reference beam; detecting the in phase component and the quadrature component of the combined beam and generating respective in-phase and quadrature signals responsive thereto; and detecting features and defects on the surface of the sample by comparing the in phase and quadrature signals so as to derive amplitude and phase information indicative of amplitude and phase variations created in the scattered radiation.