The present invention relates to microinterferometers and the application of such to profile surface geometries. A representative method for profiling a target surface of an object includes: illuminating the target surface with an incident light beam through a phase-sensitive, reflective diffraction grating, such that a first portion of the incident light beam is reflected and a second portion of the incident light beam is diffracted upon being transmitted through the diffraction grating; receiving interference patterns produced from the first portion of he incident light beam reflected from the diffraction grating interfering with the second portion of the incident light beam reflected from the target surface; measuring the intensity of the interference patterns to determine the distance to determine the distance between a reference point and the surface; varying the position of the object relative to the diffraction grating; and processing the measured distances to profile the surface of the object. Systems are also provided.