Abstract
Optical methods have been used for the sensitive characterization of surfaces and thin films for more than a century. The first ellipsometric measurement was conducted on metal surfaces by Paul Drude in 1889. The word ‘ellipsometer’ was first used by Rothen in a study of antigen-antibody interactions on polished metal surfaces in 1945. The ‘bible’ of ellipsometry has been published in the second half of the ‘70s. The publications in the topic of ellipsometry started to increase rapidly by the end of the ‘80s, together with concepts like surface plasmon resonance, later new topics like photonic crystals emerged. These techniques find applications in many fields, including sensorics or photovoltaics. In optical sensorics, the highest sensitivities were achieved by waveguide interferometry and plasmon resonance configurations. The instrumentation of ellipsometry is also being developed intensively towards higher sensitivity and performance by combinations with plasmonics, scatterometry, imaging or waveguide methods, utilizing the high sensitivity, high speed, non-destructive nature and mapping capabilities. Not only the instrumentation but also the methods of evaluation show a significant development, which leads to the characterization of structures with increasing complexity, including photonic, porous or metal surfaces. This article discusses a selection of interesting applications of photonics in the Centre for Energy Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Highlights
Both destructive (e.g. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry [SIMS], Sputtered Neutrals Mass Spectrometry, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometry, Auger Electron Spectrometry, GlowDischarge Mass Spectrometry, Raman Depth Profiling) and non-destructive (e.g. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, Elastic Recoil Detection, Angle-Dependent Soft X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy, Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction) depth profiling techniques for thin films are typically limited in measurement speed and lateral resolution, and favorable in terms of depth resolution and sensitivity [1]
Spectroscopic ellipsometry belongs to the group with limited lateral resolution and high sensitivity, but its most important feature to our topic is the high speed combined with the non-destructive nature
This article provides a short review of both bio and inorganic applications of ellipsometry
Summary
Both destructive (e.g. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry [SIMS], Sputtered Neutrals Mass Spectrometry, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometry, Auger Electron Spectrometry, GlowDischarge Mass Spectrometry, Raman Depth Profiling) and non-destructive (e.g. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, Elastic Recoil Detection, Angle-Dependent Soft X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy, Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction) depth profiling techniques for thin films are typically limited in measurement speed (minutes to hours) and lateral resolution (millimeters), and favorable in terms of depth resolution (nanometers or tens of nanometers) and sensitivity (detection limits from 1 at% down to 10−7 at%) [1]. Recent developments Depending on the optical properties of the surrounding media, ellipsometry has a typical sensitivity of ≈10−4 in refractive index units (which corresponds to ≈1 ng/mm2 for surface mass density changes in a silicon substrate), when using a standard flow cell configuration, in which the sample surface is measured through the liquid [20].
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