An extensive theoretical analysis of the 1: 2 ratio rotating polarizer–analyzer Fourier ellipsometer

Abstract

A full description of a scanning ellipsometer that incorporates the rotation of two polarizing elements simultaneously is presented in detail in this paper. Both the polarizer and the analyzer are rotating synchronously such that the angular speed of the analyzer is two times that of the polarizer. The intensity of the detected light is modulated by the rotation of these elements and by the reflection from the surface of the sample. The ideal Fourier spectrum of this signal includes nine coefficients, of which five are even and the rest are odd. All of these coefficients contain valuable information about the physical properties of the studied sample. Therefore, it is feasible to extract the ellipsometric parameters ψ and Δ as well as the optical parameters of the sample by using any set containing three different coefficients. A comparison between these sets regarding the effect of noise on these parameters and on the results is …