Abstract

We present analytical equations based on thin-film optics with which to extract the thickness of weakly absorbing films from spectral interference measurements, using only the observed constant interference frequency. It is shown that the assumption of a constant index of refraction $n$ for the analysis of interference frequency ${\omega }_0$ introduces significant errors into the thickness calculation. Instead, the first derivative of $n$ with respect to the energy, $n^{\prime }$, has to be included as well to yield the correct film thickness, even for small values of $n^{\prime }$. The equations presented can be used as constraints in appropriate numerical methods to improve the film thickness iteratively.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

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