Abstract

Ellipsometry is a sensitive and noninvasive technique for the characterization of thin films. A recently developed ellipsometer, based on the four-detector photopolarimeter, was arranged outside a UHV chemical vapor deposition chamber for the in situ monitoring of film growth processes. The instrument showed a sensitivity in the submonolayer range when used to follow the growth of germanium thin films deposited on silicon substrates. As the main instrument drawback is represented by the need to have precise alignment, an effective positioning procedure was developed to obtain a positioning error smaller than 0.1°.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

Achieving a given reflectance for unpolarized light by controlling the incidence angle and the thickness of a transparent thin film on an absorbing substrate: application to energy equipartition in the four-detector photopolarimeter

R. M. A. Azzam and Kurt A. Giardina
Appl. Opt. 31(7) 935-942 (1992)

Autocollimation-type ellipsometer for monitoring film growth through a single window

T. Yamaguchi and H. Takahashi
Appl. Opt. 15(3) 677-680 (1976)

State estimation approach for determining composition and growth rate of Si_1-xGe_x chemical vapor deposition utilizing real-time ellipsometric measurements

Scott A. Middlebrooks and James B. Rawlings
Appl. Opt. 45(27) 7043-7055 (2006)

General analysis and optimization of the four-detector photopolarimeter

R. M. A. Azzam, I. M. Elminyawi, and A. M. El-Saba
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 5(5) 681-689 (1988)

Real-time characterization of film growth on transparent substrates by rotating-compensator multichannel ellipsometry

Joungchel Lee and Robert W. Collins
Appl. Opt. 37(19) 4230-4238 (1998)