Deep lamellar diffraction gratings fabricated by etching a transparent quartz plate are studied using spectroscopic ellipsometry. The rigorous coupled-wave analysis is used to calculate the optical response of the gratings. Three parameters of the rectangular profile are determined by utilizing the least-square method. Detailed investigation of the spectral dependences demonstrates the uniqueness of the solution. Observing the spectral dependences of Wood anomalies suggests that even complicated profiles can be fitted with high authenticity. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.