Rotating polarizer analyzer ellipsometer with a fixed compensator

Abstract

Recently, a rotating polarizer analyzer ellipsometer (RPAE) in which the two optical elements rotate in opposite directions with the same angular speed has been proposed. Calculated optical constants of some materials obtained from this ellipsometric configuration were in good agreement with published values except in the low photon energy regime. We here improve the structure by adding a fixed compensator after the rotating polarizer. The optical constants of c-Si calculated from the noisy signal in the low energy regime show a high reduction in the percent error when compared to that obtained from the previous structure that does not contain the fixed compensator.