The reflection studies of steel samples subjected to etching and oxidation processes have been performed with an integrating sphere. Such measurements have allowed one to separate the specular- and diffuse component intensities of light reflected from the surfaces studied in order to determine the surface quality which changes substantially after mechanical- (polishing) and chemical treatments (etching, corrosion). The performed atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigation supports applicability of the integrating sphere for determination of steel surface roughness.
It has been found that the total light reflection from the steel surfaces changes very little after mechanical treatment but contribution of specular- and diffuse components of the optical reflection changes substantially.
The integrating sphere method has been applied to follow the roughness changes as a function of time of etching. It has been found that etching in an HCl solution causes initially decreasing of roughness of both polished and non-polished surfaces but, after longer etching time, roughness increases and the observed changes are of the order of 15%.
During the optical studies of oxidation in situ in the free air, it has been found that roughness of both polished- and non-polished surfaces decreases with time; such changes occur rapidly during first 200 s and then roughnesses asymptotically go back to their initial values. The fact that area of polished surface is lower than that of non-polished one causes decreasing of susceptibility of the former on the etching and oxidation processes.

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