Patent ID: 7245384

Claim:
A sample inclination measuring method for measuring an inclination of an axis of a columnar member having a leading end face in a planar form while said columnar member is held by a clamping apparatus and said leading end face as a sample is observed by an interferometer apparatus; said method comprising the steps of: rotating said columnar member by a predetermined angle with respect to said interferometer apparatus while in a state held by said clamping apparatus, and detecting a relative angle between a reference surface of said interferometer apparatus and said leading end face at each of two rotational positions; and measuring said inclination of said axis of said columnar member by using a predetermined arithmetic expression according to said detected two angles; wherein said relative angle between said reference surface of said interferometer apparatus and said leading end face is detected at each of first and second rotational angles separated from each other by said predetermined angle of 180°; and said inclination of said axis of said columnar member is measured by using the following set of conditional expressions: { β x = m x1 + m x2 - 180 2 β y = m y1 + m y2 - 180 2 where m x1 and m y1 are x- and y-directional angles detected at said first rotational position, respectively; m x2 and m y2 are x- and y-directional angles detected at said second rotational position, respectively; and β x and β y are angles of inclinations of said axis of rotation in x and y directions, respectively; and a manual or an automatic step of adjusting the physical inclination of the axis.