Scattermeter II is the second generation device designed and built at The Institute of Physical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology. This device has been designed for measuring the angular distribution of the intensity of electromagnetic radiation scattered from a surface of a solid. In this paper, the basic scheme of Scattermeter II and measuring principles with it are described. The results achieved in electromagnetic radiation scattering from surfaces of selected samples of single crystalline silicon wafers used in solar cells are also presented.
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.
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.
Imaging spectroscopic reflectometry is a technique suitable for measurements of local optical parameters (thickness, refraction index and index of extinction) of non-uniform thin films along their surface. It is usually assumed that gradients of these non-uniformities are reasonably small. A new design of an imaging spectroscopic reflectometer provides the possibility to successfully measure high gradient non-uniformities along relatively large area of a thin film surface. A specialized low cost apparatus was developed to accomplish a higher resolution of surface imaging at the cost of reduction of the spectral range usable. The whole concept of the imaging spectroscopic reflectometer was designed to achieve high light throughput using only prefabricated optical components. Shorter measurement times and lower demands on an imaging camera used were achieved. The imaging spectroscopic reflectometer mentioned above was realized as a compact device with easy calibration and handling. Any monochromator with its output into an optical fiber can be used as a source of light. The potential of the device is demonstrated using samples with high gradients of thickness along their surfaces. A significant improvement in the resolution of thin film interference pattern images was observed in comparison with the same images obtained by means of an older UV-VIS-NIR device.
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