IEC Abstract:

IEC TR 63258:2021 is a Technical Report focused on the practical protocol of ellipsometry to evaluate the thickness of nanoscale films. This document does not include any specification of the ellipsometers, but suggests how to minimize the data variation to improve data reproducibility.

Introduction:

Ellipsometry is a powerful optical technique to evaluate the dielectric properties of thin films. It can be used to characterize thickness, roughness, composition, crystalline nature, and other properties of nanomaterials, and is frequently used to warrant the quality and the performance of thin-film growth equipment. The signal depends on the change in the optical response of incident light that interacts with the nanomaterial being investigated.

Many current and emerging electrotechnical devices employ nanomaterials in the form of thin films. Therefore, it is important to develop a measurement protocol to evaluate the thickness of such films with sufficient accuracy.

This Technical Report describes the practical considerations that need to be taken into account in using ellipsometry to evaluate the thickness of nanoscale films

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Photo courtesy of Prof. Hiroyuki Akinaga, AIST – National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan