Parametric sensitivity analysis as an essential ingredient of spectroscopic ellipsometry data modeling: An application of the Morris screening method

Abstract

Parametric sensitivity analysis (SA) is an essential tool in optical data analysis aiming to quantify the relative importance of optical model parameters and identify those with a low influence which should remain fixed during analysis in order to simplify a model. Typically, such sensitivity studies are performed using a local sensitivity analysis, also referred to as “one-at-a-time” analysis, which estimates parameter sensitivity by evaluating the changes in model output while perturbing one parameter at a time and holding all other parameters fixed. All the pitfalls of the local sensitivity approach are quite obvious and well known; however, local SA is still prevailing in the area of data analysis for spectroscopic ellipsometry. In this study, we discuss applications of a global qualitative analysis introduced by Morris in 1991 which determines an overall significance for each model parameter and describes its nonlinear effect on model’s output and/or interactions with other parameters. The Morris method allows effective separation of the model parameters into different groups such as parameters with negligible effects, parameters with large linear effects without interactions, and parameters with large nonlinear and/or interaction effects. Here, we carried out the Morris sensitivity analysis to reveal the model parameter significance ranking in a test case of the B-spline model for titanium nitride (TiN). Such a screening approach can be considered as a practical tool for the initial global SA strategy prior to true “all-at-a-time” global sensitivity analysis.