Surface characteristic determining apparatus

Light from the first and second different wavelength light sources is combined and supplied to a director that directs zeroth order light to a reference surface and other order, generally first order diffracted light to on a location of the sample surface which is dependent upon wavelength. Light reflected by the sample and reference surfaces interfere. A characteristic of a sample surface is determined from interference light of the first wavelength. Interference light of the second wavelength is used to enable phase-locking by adjusting the path length difference by moving the reference surface or changing the refractive index of a path portion to compensate for phase variation due to environmental effects.; Non- mechanical scanning is used to scan the sample surface by using a variable wavelength source and a director providing different first order diffraction angles for different wavelengths or an acousto-optical device that provides a variable pitch acoustic diffraction grating.