Quantification of errors arising in ellipsometry

✍ Scribed by M.F. Lamorte; F. Abou-Elfotouh

• Book ID: 103902123
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Weight: 543 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0379-6787
• DOI: 10.1016/0379-6787(89)90057-4

✦ Synopsis

Ellipsometric analytical methods have been investigated for the measurements of thin film thickness and the optical properties of substrate material. The investigation has been facilitated by the development of computer modeling programs (THKNES and ELIPS) which determine film thickness, and the index of refraction and extinction coefficient, respectively, from experimentally measured ellipsometer parameters ~ and A. ELIPS is also capable of scanning over incident radiation wavelength of up to 200 sets of experimental data.

These computer studies show that there is an exact and unique correspondence between ~ and A for a given set of values related to film thickness (including zero) and to the optical properties of the substrate. It is shown that small errors in the experimentally determined ellipsometric parameters lead to errors in film thickness. Moreover, a multiplicity of pair-values of the index of refraction and extinction coefficient are typically obtained, some of which are greatly at variance with the optical properties of the substrate.