利用光学方法测量薄膜厚度的研究

介绍了测量固体薄膜厚度的光学方法。分析了这些方法的光学原理,对所使用的光源、测量范围、测量精度、实现的难度以及方法所适用的场合等多种因素进行了比较分析,结果表明:对于厚度在10～100μm范围的固体薄膜而言,激光干涉法是一种简单、易于实现且测量精度较高的方法。     

一种可实现薄膜厚度在线测量的方法

介绍了一种测量固体薄膜厚度的光学方法。该方法具有测量速度快、可实现在线测量等特点。为解决薄膜生产过程中厚度在线检测问题,构造了一套软硬件实验系统,利用该系统进行实验的结果表明:在10~100μm厚度范围,测量误差小于10%,满足实际生产需要。     

On thickness dependence of electrical and optical properties of Te thin films

Received: 1 July 1997/Accepted: 6 August 1997     

Improved SPR technique for determination of the thickness and optical constants of thin metal films

A novel method with single-wavelength light is developed to determine the optical constants and the thickness of a thin metal film. It bases on a new geometry that consists of a coupling prism, a transparent coating layer directly deposited onto the prism base, a thin metal film to be detected, and the air. The attenuated total reflection technique is employed in our configuration to excite two different kinds of surface plasmon waves simultaneously. As a result, the reflection curve shows two obvious surface plasmon resonant dips. Using the Chen's et al. (Opt. Soc. Am. 71 189, 1981) method, we can obtain two sets of () and thickness of the thin metal film through one resonant dip (surface plasmon), then the real value can be determined through the other resonant dip (modified long-range surface plasmon). Compared to conventional double wavelength method and the double-medium technique (Yang et al. Appl. Opt. 27 11, 1988), the present single-scan method avoids both the ambiguity of different conditions caused by two-scan technique, and the dispersion problem with different light wavelength.     

Microstructure parameters and optical properties of cadmium ferrite thin films of variable thickness

CdFe₂O₄ thin films of different thicknesses were deposited onto glass substrates by the thermal evaporation technique. Their structural characteristics were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The microstructure parameters, crystallite size, and microstrain were calculated. It is observed that both the crystallite size increases and microstrain increase with increasing with the film thickness. The fundamental optical parameters like absorption coefficient and optical band gap are calculated in the strong absorption region of transmittance and reflectance spectrum. The refractive indices have been evaluated in terms of the envelope method, which has been suggested by Swanepoel in the transparent region. The refractive index can be extrapolated by the Cauchy dispersion relationship over the whole spectra range, which extended from 400 to 2500 nm. The refractive index, n, increases on increasing the film thickness up to 733 nm and the variation of n with higher thickness lies within the experimental errors.     

一种监控膜厚的新算法

光学薄膜的光学特性与其每一膜层的厚度密切相关,为了制备出符合要求的光学薄膜产品,在制备过程中必须监控膜厚。光学薄膜实时监控精度决定了所镀制的光学薄膜的厚度精度。针对光电极值法极值点附近监控精度低、无法精确监控非规整膜系的缺陷,提出了新的光学薄膜膜厚监控算法。该算法通过数学运算,使得光学薄膜的光学厚度与透射率呈线性关系,并且有效地消除光源波动、传输噪声等共模干扰的影响,算法精度可控制在2%以内。     

Superheating of thin films for optical recording

Two methods for calculating the temperature in a thin film on a substrate during laser exposure are discussed. A simple algebraic expression gives a satisfactory estimate for the maximum temperature if radial diffusion of heat is negligible. A numerical method is applied to calculate the temperature profile in a tellurium film on a PMMA substrate. The calculations show that for pulse times below about 10 μs, the temperature at which hole opening occurs, is considerably above the melting point of tellurium. This indicates that for small pulses the solid film is locally superheated due to the limiting kinetics of the melting process.     

Dependence of film thickness on the structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films

ZnO thin films are prepared on glass substrates by pulsed filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition (PFCVAD) at room temperature. Optical parameters such as optical transmittance, reflectance, band tail, dielectric coefficient, refractive index, energy band gap have been studied, discussed and correlated to the changes with film thickness. Kramers-Kronig and dispersion relations were employed to determine the complex refractive index and dielectric constants using reflection data in the ultraviolet-visible-near infrared regions. Films with optical transmittance above 90% in the visible range were prepared at pressure of 6.5 × 10⁻⁴ Torr. XRD analysis revealed that all films had a strong ZnO (0 0 2) peak, indicating c-axis orientation. The crystal grain size increased from 14.97 nm to 22.53 nm as the film thickness increased from 139 nm to 427 nm, however no significant change was observed in interplanar distance and crystal lattice constant. Optical energy gap decreased from 3.21 eV to 3.19 eV with increasing the thickness. The transmission in UV region decreased with the increase of film thickness. The refractive index, Urbach tail and real part of complex dielectric constant decreased as the film thickness increased. Oscillator energy of as-deposited films increased from 3.49 eV to 4.78 eV as the thickness increased.     

A study of optical absorption in amorphous hydrogenated silicon thin films of varied thickness

We report results obtained from optical absorption studies carried out on amorphous silicon thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) from silane plasma. The influence of the film thickness was studied on the two series of samples deposited from undiluted silane and under moderate hydrogen dilution of silane. Spectral refractive indices and absorption coefficients were determined from transmittance spectra. The spectral absorption coefficients were used to determine the Tauc optical band-gap energies E_g, the B factors of the Tauc plots, the iso-energy values E₀₄ (energy at which the absorption coefficient is equal to 10⁴ cm⁻¹). The results were correlated with volume fractions of the amorphous phase and voids and with the film thickness.     

nm量级薄膜厚度测量

 为了获得nm量级薄膜样品的精确厚度,采用软X射线反射率拟合方法、Bragg衍射方程方法和反射率Fourier变换方法分析了常规Cu靶X射线衍射数据及软X射线反射率数据。对厚度测量结果进行比较,3种方法得到的结果一致性很好。其中,软X射线反射率拟合和Bragg衍射方程方法精度很高,优于1 nm,Fourier变换方法精度稍低。对于单层W薄膜样品,3种方法获得厚度分别为(15.21±0.60) nm,(14.0±1.0) nm和(13.8±1.5) nm;对于双层W/C薄膜样品,W层厚度分别为(12.64±0.60) nm,(13.0±1.0) nm和(13.9±1.5) nm。这3种方法测量结果精度主要取决于反射率数据测量精度,而Fourier变换方法精度随着能量升高而提高,随着掠入射角范围增大而提高。     

nm量级薄膜厚度测量

为了获得nm量级薄膜样品的精确厚度,采用软X射线反射率拟合方法、Bragg衍射方程方法和反射率Fourier变换方法分析了常规Cu靶X射线衍射数据及软X射线反射率数据。对厚度测量结果进行比较,3种方法得到的结果一致性很好。其中,软X射线反射率拟合和Bragg衍射方程方法精度很高,优于1 nm,Fourier变换方法精度稍低。对于单层W薄膜样品,3种方法获得厚度分别为(15.21±0.60) nm,(14.0±1.0) nm和(13.8±1.5) nm;对于双层W/C薄膜样品,W层厚度分别为(12.64±0.60) nm,(13.0±1.0) nm和(13.9±1.5) nm。这3种方法测量结果精度主要取决于反射率数据测量精度,而Fourier变换方法精度随着能量升高而提高,随着掠入射角范围增大而提高。     

Influence of thickness and crystalline structure on thermal and optical properties of ZnO thin films

Measurements of the temperature dependence of refractive index of ZnO thin films and thermal diffusivity using photothermal deflection technique are presented. Thin film thickness and surface homogeneity were found to be the effective parameters on optical and thermal properties of the thin films. High refractive index gradient with temperature was found for films of a nonuniform distribution and gathered in clusters, and a high predicted value for thermal diffusivity. Optical properties of the thin films revealed that films with disorder in the deposition and gathered clusters showed poor transmittance in visible region with a pronounced peak in the near IR, and also a reduction in the band gap. A detailed parametric analysis using analytical solution of one-dimensional heat equation had been performed. A discontinuity in the temperature elevation at the ZnO-glass interface was found.     

Influence of buffer layer thickness on the structure and optical properties of ZnO thin films

A series of ZnO thin films were deposited on ZnO buffer layers by DC reactive magnetron sputtering. The buffer layer thickness determination of microstructure and optical properties of ZnO films was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), optical transmittance and absorption measurements. XRD results revealed that the stress of ZnO thin films varied with the buffer layer thickness. With the increase of buffer layer thickness, the band gap edge shifted toward longer wavelength. The near-band-edge (NBE) emission intensity of ZnO films deposited on ZnO buffer layer also varied with the increase of thickness due to the spatial confinement increasing the Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes. The PL measurement showed that the optimum thickness of the ZnO buffer layer was around 12 nm.     

Structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel method with different thickness

In this work, ZnO thin films with different thickness were prepared by sol-gel method on glass substrates and the structural and optical properties of these films were studied by X-ray diffractometer, atomic force microscope, UV-visible spectrophotometer, ellipsometer and fluorophotometer, respectively. The structural analyses show that all the samples have a wurtzite structure and are preferentially oriented along the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. The growth process of highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin films derived from sol-gel method is a self-template process. With the increase of film thickness, the structural disorder decreases and the crystalline quality of the films is gradually improved. A transition of crystal growth mode from vertical growth to lateral growth is observed and the transition point is found between 270 and 360 nm thickness. The optical analyses show that with the increase of film thickness, both the refractive index and ultraviolet emission intensity are improved. However, the transmittance in the visible range is hardly influenced by the film thickness, and the averages are all above 80%.     

Anomalous optical constants of thin films

The explanation of anomalous optical constants in thin chemically distinct layers on substrates offered by Plumb is re-examined and extended. The model invokes the concept of the space charged boundary layer and treats the charge carrier population as a free-electron gas to derive the optical behaviour of thin surface films. The implication of the space charge means that the optical constants of a dielectric film on a metal will vary over a distance directly proportional to the dielectric constant of the film and inversly proportional to the concentration of the electrons at the metal/film interface. Similarly as the temperature increases this space charge region should extend to larger distances from the interface.     

Simulation of thickness dependence in ferroelectric thin films

The thickness dependence of coercive field (E_C) and remanent polarization (P_r) in ferroelectric thin films has been numerically simulated using a two-dimensional four-state Potts model. In this model, each of the dipoles in the film is assigned to one of the four states corresponding to the four different mutually perpendicular orientations. Neighboring dipoles with the same orientation are then grouped together to form a domain. Four different kinds of domains exist. In the presence of the surface layer near the electrode/film interface, the thickness dependence of both coercive field and remanent polarization are simulated.     

多层光学薄膜周期厚度的双晶X射线掠入射研究

阐述了掠入射Ｘ射线测量薄膜厚度的条件，讨论和分析了掠入射Ｘ射线测量多层薄膜厚度的干涉原理和方法。利用双晶Ｘ射线衍射仪对多层光学薄膜的周期厚度进行了掠入射小角度测量，获得了令人满意的结果，测量值与设计值极好地吻合。     

Comparative study of optical analysis methods for thin films

Three popular optical analysis methods (the transfer-matrix method, the Tinkham formula, and Beer's law) have been used for analyzing the optical spectra of thin films. While the transfer-matrix method is an accurate method, the Tinkham formula and Beer's law are approximate methods. Here we investigated the three methods using measured transmittance spectra of insulating transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) thin films on a quartz substrate. Three different semiconducting 2H-TMD systems (MoS₂, MoSe₂, and MoTe₂) were measured and analyzed. The optical conductivities obtained from the measured transmittance spectra using the transfer-matrix method and Tinkham formula and the absorption coefficients obtained using the transfer-matrix method and Beer's law were compared. The comparisons show some discrepancies. The reasons for the discrepancies between the results obtained via the two different methods were examined and the application limitations of the Tinkham formula and Beer's law were discussed.     

Method of the ratio of envelopes of the reflection spectrum for measuring optical constants and thickness of thin films

A spectrophotometric method is proposed that uses the ratio of envelopes of minima and maxima of the interference reflection spectrum for measuring optical constants of a film on a substrate. Because this ratio does not contain the instrumental function of a spectrophotometer, there is no need in careful calibration of the spectrophotometer. In the case of a transparent isotropic film on an absorbing substrate, the inverse problem has an analytic solution. A simple method is proposed for numerical calculations of the optical constants and thickness of an absorbing film.     

Laser-induced optical recording in thin films

A model is presented to describe the hole opening in ablative optical recording. The model accounts for changes in geometry of the sensitive film, for adhesion of the film to the substrate, for surface tension gradients in the sensitive film and for evaporation or sublimation at the film-substrate interface. The changes in geometry during hole opening are shown to be responsible for an energy barrierF _act=10^?16 to 10^?15 J, corresponding to 1.5–6J/cm³ which is much too large to make thermal activation of hole opening possible.F _act is reduced by surface tension gradients in the liquid film and/or evaporation at the filmsubstrate interface. The predictions of the model are compared with laser recording experiments performed with Te-alloy films on various polymer sublayers. Experiments and model show that the threshold energyE _th for hole opening (andF _act) can be reduced by (i) lowering the surface tension and/or polarity of the polymer sublayer, (ii) reducing the dynamic work of adhesion, e.g. by decreasing the crosslink density or the mean molecular weight of the sublayer, and (iii) increasing the concentration of low molecular weight material in the sublayer, which reduces the adhesion of the film and stimulates evaporation at the interface.