Logo der Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry: Principle, Instrumentation, and Applications for Nanometrology

Kolloquium der Abteilung 4

Ellipsometry is an optical metrology technique that utilizes polarized light to characterize thickness of thin films and optical constants of both layered and bulk materials. Among the various types of ellipsometers, Mueller matrix ellipsometer (MME) can provide all 16 elements of a 4 by 4 Mueller matrix in each measurement, and thus can acquire much more useful information about the sample. In this talk, I briefly review the principle, instrumentation, and data analysis of conventional spectroscopic ellipsometry for multi-layered thin film characterization. Then, I present the latest progress carried out in our laboratory on MME for nanostructure metrology, including the development of a broadband dual rotating-compensator MME, the data analysis in MME-based nanostructure metrology from the viewpoint of computational metrology, and several case studies to reveal the capability and advantages of MME in nanometrology. Finally, I discuss some novel applications of ellipsometry for nanometrology, such as the determination of curved oxide thin film on a silicon sphere for the Avogadro constant project, the in-situ monitoring of initial growth of noble metal thin films fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD), and the characterization of molecular orientation in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells.