A two‐dimensional variation method was used to examine the fractal nature and extract the fractal dimension of rough silicon surfaces prepared by chemical etching and rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition. The measurement of the topography was made with an atomic force microscope and the analysis included traditional characterization parameters as well as fractals. Our results show that the surfaces under investigation exhibited fractal behavior and that the variation method is well suited to extract the fractal dimension from atomic force microscopy data.