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Ellipsometer
Some of the light reaching the surface of a material will reflect while some will refract until it reaches an interface where the same process repeats itself. The reflected light undergoes a change in polarization that is represented as an amplitude ratio Psi and the phase difference Delta. An ellipsometer is an instrument used to measure the change in polarization of a beam of light reflecting off a material in order to determine the material’s composition as the change in polarization depends on the optical properties and thickness of each material. Thus ellipsometry is commonly used to determine the thickness and optical constants of various films. It has also been used for the characterization of composition, crystallinity, surface roughness, alloy ratio, doping concentration and other material properties associated with a change in the optical response. Ellipsomtery is a model-based measurement tool. After measuring a sample, a model is constructed based on the assumed values of the sample physical parameters. The actual values of these parameters are determined through the use of an iterative regression fitting algorithm which minimizes the errors between the measured data and the model generated data by adjusting the physical parameters of the model.
The Woollam VASE M2000, in the Nanofabrication facility, is a variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer, which allows measurements at incident light angles from 40o to 90o over a wavelength range from 370 nm to 1700 nm. The measurement is fast, accurate and non-destructive. The ellipsometer is suitable for measuring single and multiple layer structures with thicknesses ranging from 1nm to 10 um. The ellipsometer is equipped with a collimated light beam with diameter of 2-5mm and focusing optics with a spot size of 150 µm. The horizontally mounted stage can hold samples with various sizes up to a 150 mm (6”) wafer. Typically dielectric, polymers and semiconductor films are measured, and very thin metal films can also be analyzed.
