Investigation of the use of rotating linearly polarized light for characterizing SiO<inf>2</inf> thin-film on Si substrate

• Main Authors: C. Pawong, R. Chitaree, C. Soankwan
• Other Authors: Mahidol University
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Physics and Astronomy
• Online Access: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/12836

This research is based on the Fresnel's equations and the ellipsometric technique that investigate the sample of SiO2 thinfilm on Si substrate. The investigation is made by a probing beam which is in the form of a rotating linearly polarized light generated by the polarizing Mach-Zehnder interferometer (pMZi). The detection of the changed polarization states of the incident light due to reflection on the sample surfaces led to a set of unique characteristics describing a thin-film substrate system in terms of ellipsometric parameters ψ and Δ. SiO 2 thin-films were chosen to study because of their well known characteristics. The accuracy of measurements was confirmed by comparisons to calculated values derived from Fresnel's equations and a standard instrument. The results clearly reveal a feasibility of using the rotating linearly polarized light produced by pMZi for a non-destructive characterization of the thin-film system. © 2011 SPIE-OSA-IEEE.