Abstract: In a method and apparatus for detecting small periodic wave patterns in technical surfaces, monochromatic coherent primary light is directed onto a workpiece surface approximately at right angles to the expected periodic wave patterns, and at an angle of incidence that grazes the workpiece surface, creating a diffraction image of the waved surface structure in the secondary-light beam. The occurrence of two intensity maxima immediately indicates the presence of a periodic wave pattern, whose period is evaluated through inverse proportionality from the spacing of neighboring intensity maxima, while the depth of the wave troughs is determined from the intensity of neighboring intensity maxima and from the period. The intensity distribution in the diffraction image in the secondary-beam path is subjected to an autocorrelation, and both the period and the depth of the wave pattern can be calculated from the autocorrelation function.