Abstract
A method is proposed for extracting the ellipsometric parameters of isotropic and
anisotropic thin films from the Stokes parameters obtained for five different input
polarization lights, namely four linearly polarized lights and one right-hand circular
polarized light. In the proposed approach, the genetic algorithm in curve fitting is
used to extract the refractive index and thickness properties of the isotropic or
anisotropic sample from the experimental results obtained for the variation of the
ellipsometric parameters with the incident angle. Finally, the experimental values of
the ellipsometric parameters and the simulated values are compared. It is shown that for
a typical isotropic thin film, the average standard deviations of
Ψ<sub><i>pp</i></sub> and Δ<sub><i>pp</i></sub> are 0.020° and
0.464°, respectively. Meanwhile, for a typical anisotropic thin film, the average
standard deviations of Ψ<sub><i>pp</i></sub>, Ψ<sub><i>ps</i></sub>,
Ψ<sub><i>sp</i></sub>, Δ<sub><i>pp</i></sub>,
Δ<sub><i>ps</i></sub>, and Δ<sub><i>sp</i></sub> are found to be
0.014°, 0.047°, 0.041°, 0.312°, 0.402°, and
0.571°, respectively. Overall, the results presented in this study confirm that
the proposed method provides a straightforward and reliable means of extracting the
ellipsometric parameters of isotropic and anisotropic materials by Stokes parameters
using five independent input polarization lights. Specially, the ellipsometric
parameters of anisotropic thin film expressed by Stokes parameters or Mueller elements
are explicitly presented.
© 2012 IEEE
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