We report on a novel microellipsometer that uses a spatially filtered high-numerical-aperture (NA) lens for large-angle ellipsometric illumination and high spatial resolution. A radially symmetric ellipsometric signal is achieved with two half-wave plates to produce a pure polarization rotation and a birefringent cube as a radial analyzer. This radial symmetry offers a better signal-to-noise ratio compared with other microellipsometer techniques. Ellipsometric measurement with a spatial resolution of 0.5 μm is performed with a He-Ne (632.8-nm) laser source and an objective lens with an NA of 0.8. Experimental data on SiO₂ samples with different thicknesses are in good agreement with spectroscopic ellipsometer results. We acquired ellipsometric images of photoresist microstructure through scanning the sample. Surface profiles of the photoresist microstructure are derived from the ellipsometric data and compared with the results from a stylus profiler.

© 2002 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Determination of local polarization properties of biological samples in the presence of diattenuation by use of Mueller optical coherence tomography (OL)
• Application of space periodic variation of light polarization in imaging polarimetry (AO)
• Pseudopolar decomposition of the Jones and Mueller-Jones exponential polarization matrices (JOSAA)
• Analytic inversion of the Mueller-Jones polarization matrices for homogeneous media (OL)
• High-spatial-resolution nulling microellipsometer using rotational polarization symmetry (AO)

Related Conference Papers

• Design and Implementation of a Nulling Microellipsometer
• Condition Number as a Metric for the Effectiveness of Polarimetric Algorithms
• Imaging Birefringent Biological Organelles Independent of Their Orientation in 3D Space
• Reduction of the thermal load by laser oscillation in highly Nd³⁺-doped ceramic YAG
• Stress-Induced Focal Splitting: Effects of Higher Order Symmetry