Artificial roughness was created on sample surfaces by etching through a two-dimensional orthogonal grating with a stochastic distribution of square "defects" of size. "Defects" depth was varied from 0.02 mu m up to 1.005 mu m. The experimental dependences of the scattering of polarized light were studied on four types of surface roughness for two materials: quartz and aluminum. The defect sizes of the random phase mask were 25 x 25 mu m and 2.5 x 2.5 mu m. The impacts of the sizes and density of artificial defects of rough surfaces on the polarization of reflected light were investigated by multiple-angle-of-incidence (MAI) ellipsometry at a wavelength of 0.63 mu m. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.