Vacuum evaporated SiO2 thin films are very important in a design and manufacturing of optical devices produced in optics industry. In this contribution a reliable and precise optical characterization of such SiO2 thin films is performed using the combined method of spectrophotometry at normal incidence and variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry applied over spectral range from far IR to extreme UV (0.01-45 eV). This method uses the Universal Dispersion Model based on parametrization of the joint density of states and structural model comprising film defects such as nanometric boundary roughness, inhomogeneity and area non-uniformity. The optical characterization over the wide spectral range provides not only the spectral dependencies of the optical constants of the films within the wide range but, more significantly, it enables their correct and precise determination within the spectral range of interest, i.e. the range of their transparency. Furthermore, measurements in the ranges of film absorption, i. e. phonon excitations in IR and electron excitations in UV, reveal information about the material structure. The results of the optical characterization of the SiO2 thin films prepared on silicon single crystal substrates under various technological conditions are presented in detail for two selected samples. Beside film thicknesses and values of dispersion parameters and spectral dependencies of the optical constants of the SiO2 films, the characterization also enables quantification of film defects and their parameters are presented as well. The results concerning the optical constants of SiO2 films are compared with silica optical constants determined in our earlier studies.
It is possible to encounter thin films exhibiting various defects in practice. One of these defects is area non-uniformity in optical parameters (e.g. in thickness). Therefore it is necessary to have methods for an optical characterization of nonuniform thin films. Imaging spectroscopic reflectometry provides methods enabling us to perform an efficient optical characterization of such films. It gives a possibility to determine spectral dependencies of a local reflectance at normal incidence of light belonging to small areas (37 μm × 37 μm in our case) on these non-uniform films. The local reflectance is measured by individual pixels of a CCD camera serving as a detector of an imaging spectroscopic reflectometer. It is mostly possible to express the local reflectance using formulas corresponding to a uniform thin film. It allows a relatively simple treatment of the experimental data obtained by imaging spectroscopic reflectometry. There are three methods for treating these experimental data in the special case of thickness non-uniformity, i.e. in the case of the same optical constants within a certain area of the film - single pixel imaging spectroscopic reflectometry method, combination of single-pixel imaging spectroscopic reflectometry method and conventional methods (conventional single spot spectroscopic ellipsometry and spectrophotometry), and multi-pixel imaging spectroscopic reflectometry method. These methods are discussed and examples of the optical characterization of thin films non-uniform in thickness corresponding to these methods are presented in this contribution.
Development of antireflective coatings realized by thin film systems requires their characterization and optimization of their properties. Functional properties of such interference devices are determined by optical constants and thicknesses of the individual films and various defects taking place in these systems. In optics industry the characterization of the films is mostly performed in a relatively narrow spectral range using simple dispersion models and, moreover, the defects are not taken into account at all. This manner of characterization fails if applied to real-world non-ideal thin film systems because the measured data do not contain sufficient information about all the parameters describing the system including imperfections. Reliable characterization requires the following changes: extension of spectral range of measurements, combination of spectrophotometry and ellipsometry, utilization of physically correct dispersion models (Kramers-Kronig consistency, sum rules), inclusion of structural defects instrument imperfection into the models and simultaneous processing of all experimental data. This enables us to remove or reduce a correlation among the parameters searched so that correct and sufficiently precise determination of parameter values is achieved. Since the presence and properties of the defects are difficult to control independently by tuning of the deposition conditions, the optimization does not in general involve the elimination of defects. Instead they are taken into account in the design of the film systems. The outlined approach is demonstrated on the characterization and optimization of ultraviolet antireflective coating formed by double layer of Al2O3 and MgF2 deposited on fused silica.
In the optics industry thin film systems are used to construct various interference devices such as antireflective coatings, high-reflectance mirrors, beam splitters and filters. The optical characterization of complex optical systems can not be performed by measurements only in the short spectral range in which the interference devices will be employed because the measured data do not contain sufficient information about all relevant parameters of these systems. The characterization of film materials requires the extension of the spectral range of the measurements to the IR region containing phonon absorption and to the UV region containing the electronic excitations. However, this leads to necessity of a dispersion model suitable for the description of the dielectric response in the wide spectral range. Such model must respect the physical conditions following from theory of dispersion, particularly Kramers-Kronig relations and integrability imposed by sum rules. This work presents the construction of a universal dispersion model composed from individual contributions representing both electronic and phonon excitations. The efficiency of presented model is given by the fact that all the contributions are described by analytical expressions. It is shown that the model is suitable for precise modeling of spectral dependencies of optical constants of a broad class of materials used in the optical industry for thin film systems such as MgF2, SiO2, Al2O3, HfO2, Ta2O5 and TiO2 in the spectral range from far IR to vacuum UV.
A new optical characterization method based on imaging spectroscopic reflectometry (ISR) is presented and illustrated on the characterization of rough non-uniform epitaxial ZnSe films prepared on GaAs substrates. The method allows the determination of all parameters describing the thin films exhibiting boundary roughness and non-uniformity in thickness, i.e. determination of the spectral dependencies of the optical constants, map of local thickness and map of local rms values of heights of the irregularities for the rough boundaries. The local normal reflectance spectra in ISR correspond to small areas (37×37 μm2) on the thin films measured within the spectral range 270{900 nm by pixels of a CCD camera serving as the detector of imaging spectrophotometer constructed in our laboratory. To our experience the small areas corresponding to the pixels are sufficiently small so that the majority of the films can be considered uniform in all parameters within these areas. Boundary roughness is included into the reflectance formulas by means of the scalar diffraction theory (SDT) and the optical constant spectra of the ZnSe films were expressed by the dispersion model based on the parametrization of the joint density of electronic states (PJDOS). In general, there is a correlation between the searched parameters if the individual local reflectance spectra are fitted separately and, therefore, the local reflectance spectra measured for all the pixels are treated simultaneously using so called multi-pixel method in order to remove or reduce this correlation and determine the values of all the parameters with a sufficient accuracy. The results of the optical characterization of the same selected sample of the epitaxial ZnSe thin film obtained using the method presented here and combined method of variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, spectroscopic reflectometry and single-pixel immersion spectroscopic reflectometry are introduced in the contribution as well.
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