Characterization of Metallic and
Dielectric Surfaces Using Ellipsometry
Alexander Fisher '10

Alex with the ellipsometer

Abstract:

   A home-built ellipsometer was used to measure the complex refractive index of three surfaces. The surfaces were a dielectric glass slide, a 377 nm Al film, and a 200 nm Au film. Three runs of the glass slide gave indices of 1.498, 1.493, and 1.4 – 0.045i. Compared to expected index of 1.515, this gave percent errors of 1.1%, 1.5% and 4.1 %, respectively. Similarly, three runs of the Al film gave 1.130 + 1.573i, 1.207 + 2.439i, and 1.206 + 2.469i with percent errors of 18.4%, 12.8% and 12.9% for the real part and 120.6%, 131.9% and 132.3% for the imaginary part. The Au film gave 0.260 – 3.428i, 0.263 – 2.774i and 0.482 – 2.362i with percent errors of 34.2%, 35.5% and 148.7% for the real part and 10.7%, 10.4% and 23.5% for the imaginary part.

   For more information, contact Dr. Catherine Jahncke:

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