Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum optischen Untersuchen einer Oberflaeche

In a process and a device for the optical examination of a surface, the optical path lengths of a reference arm (11) and an object arm (12) are adjusted in such a way that the light component reflected by substructures (31,32) is detectable in a further substructure interference signal in addition to a white light interferogram formed by a light component reflected from the surface (28). By evaluating the substructure interference signal, for example, the depth of substructures (31,32) not detectable laterally by conventional optical methods can be measured.