Ellipsometric Expressions for a Near-normal-incidence Ellipsometer with the Polarizer-compensator-sample-compensator-analyzer Configuration

A near-normal-incidence ellipsometer (NNIE) is suggested as an optical critical dimension (OCD) measurement system that is highly sensitive to the bottom defect of a sample with high-aspect-ratio structured patterns. Incident light passes through a polarizer and a phase retarder in sequence, and the reflected light from the sample also passes through them, but in reverse order. The operating principle of this NNIE, where a single polarizer and a single phase retarder are shared by the incident and reflected light, is studied, and a method to determine the ellipsometric constants from the measured intensities at proper combinations of the azimuthal angles of polarizer and retarder is presented.