The ellipsometric function
for an ambient-film-substrate system is defined as the ratio of complex-amplitude reflection coefficients for the
and
polarization:
where
are functions of Fresnel interface reflection coefficients
,
r12p,
r01s, and
r12s. The pairs
and
signify the ambient-film and film-substrate interfaces. Here
is an exponential function of metric film thickness
and
is the thickness period. If the ambient and film media are transparent, the point representing
moves uniformly in a clockwise direction around the unit circle in the complex
plane as
increases from 0 to
. Because
ρr is related to
by an analytic rational function, the point representing
must trace a closed contour in the complex
plane as
traces the unit circle in the complex
plane.
The figure shows such a family of non-intersecting,
constant angle of incidence contours (CAIC) for
(normal incidence) to
(grazing incidence) for the
system at
.
Browse all topics
