SIMULTANEOUS MULTIPLE ANGLE/MULTIPLE WAVELENGTH ELLIPSOMETER AND METHOD

摘要

The ellipsometer (1) and method involve directing polarized light for interaction with an optical system (2) under study at different angles of incidence from a single beam of light and detecting the light interacted with the optical system by reflection and/or transmission for each of a plurality of different angles of incidence. The simultaneous illumination of the optical system under study at a whole range of angles of incidence alpha from a single beam of light and the collection a large multiplicity of data from the different angles detected can be accomplished rapidly and easily and with accuracy without scanning and with only one ellipsometer. A lens (7) is used to focus the incoming light to provide the range of different angles of incidence alpha . The range of angles is at least one or two degrees and preferably thirty degrees or more. A second lens (8) refocuses the interacted light to a linear, multi-element detector array (6) which extends in the plane of the incidence. Each of the detector elements (9) detects a narrow range of angles of incidence within the relatively wider range of angles of incidence of the illuminating beam. If the incident illuminating rays are polychromatic and a wavelength dispersing element (10) acts on the reflected rays each detector element of a square array (11) detects a narrow range of wavelengths and angles of incidence.