Abstract

We discuss the characterization of inhomogeneous thin films by ellipsometry. We compare the sensitivity of ellipsometry measurements for different configurations — chromium mirror, total reflection prism and surface plasmon excitation — taking as an example the refractive index gradient of a polymer grafted layer. For thin layers (with a thickness much smaller than the wavelength), it is rather difficult in any configuration to analyze the details of the refractive index profile by a direct examination of the ellipsometric parameters. We thus propose an alternative treatment of the measured quantities, based upon the angular dependence of the effective thickness and refractive index of the inhomogeneous layer, calculated in the framework of the linear Born approximation.

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