A spectroscopic ellipsometer using rotating polarizer and analyzer at a speed ratio 1: 1 and a compensator

Abstract

Ellipsometers have been widely used in thin film characterization. They have shown a high degree of accuracy. We here propose theoretically a rotating polarizer and analyzer ellipsometer at a speed ratio 1:1 with a fixed compensator placed just after the rotating polarizer. Our calculations of the optical properties of c-Si and SiO reveal a substantial decrease in the percent error due to the fixed compensator. The uncertainties in the ellipsometric parameters as functions of the uncertainties of the Fourier coefficients are presented in details.