Abstract

Variable Angle Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (VASE™) is a powerful tool for optical characterization, and is applicable to a wide variety of bulk materials and thin film structures. For most VASE™ measurements, the Jones matrix which represents the sample is assumed to be diagonal; this is always the case for specular isotropic samples. However, for anisotropic samples, the Jones matrix is not diagonal in general (except for special orientations of the optical axis with respect to the measurement frame of reference). For such anisotropic samples, with arbitrary orientation of the optical axis, the traditional ellipsometric ratio of tan(Ψ) e^iΔ = r_p/r_s does not adequately describe the reflection of polarized light from the sample.

© 1995 Optical Society of America