Theoritical Characterization of Different Samples Using Rotating Polarizer and Analyzer Ellipsometer with A Fixed Compensator

Abstract

Ellipsometry is an extremely powerful tool for the study the optical properties of materials with high optical data precision in measurement. Being accurate, fast and non-destructive in data acquisition and characterization of the samples, ellipsometry has been widely applied especially in the scientific research labs and microelectronic industry with continuous efforts and progress made by developing different theoretical models and experimental techniques. In this work, an ellipsometer using a fixed phase retarder and a rotating polarizer and analyzer at any speed ratio is presented. Muller formalism is employed to extract Stokes parameters from which the intensity received by the detector is obtained. A comparison between different configurations is held regarding the effect of the noise on the results extracted from each one and the uncertainties in the ellipsometric parameters as functions of the uncertainties of the Fourier coefficients. Moreover, a set of ellipsometric configurations using a rotating polarizer, compensator, and analyzer at any speed ratio is studied. All configurations are applied to bulk c-Si and GaAs to calculate the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of the samples. The comparison among different configurations reveals that rotating compensator-analyzer configuration corresponds to the minimum error in the calculated optical parameters.