Laser diagnostics of nanoscale dielectric films on absorbing substrate by differential reflectivity and ellipsometry

The differential reflection characteristics for ultrathin inhomogeneous dielectric film on absorbing substrate are investigated in the long-wavelength approximation. The obtained first-order expressions for differential reflectivity and changes in the ellipsometric angles caused by ultrathin layer are of immediate interest to the solution of the inverse problem. The method to determine the averaged values (not the realistic profile) of refractive index for inhomogeneous nanometric films are shown. The novel possibilities for determining the dielectric constant and thickness of nanoscale homogeneous films by the differential ellipsometric and reflectivity measurements are developed, and a simple method to estimate whether the nanometric film is homogeneous or not is also discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.