Rapid measurement method for ultra-thin film optical constant

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of China patent application serial no. 201910315604.8, filed on Apr. 19, 2019. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND
Technical Field

The invention relates to a measurement and characterization research field of ultra-thin film optical properties, and particularly relates to a rapid measurement method for an ultra-thin film optical constant.

Description of Related Art

Along with rapid development of optoelectronic technology, etc., an application scope of thin films has gradually expanded, and many ultra-thin films with thickness of only tens or even a few nanometers have become a current research hotspot. Optical constants of ultra-thin films are very important in basic scientific research and design and optimization of nano-optical devices, and the optical constants of the ultra-thin films will change along with thickness and preparation conditions, etc., so that the information in existing literatures or databases cannot be simply used. Therefore, it is very important to achieve fast and accurate measurement of the ultra-thin film optical constants.

The optical constant measurement and characterization methods of ultra-thin films mainly include a photometric method, a prism coupling method, interferometry, ellipsometry, etc. The photometric method determines a thickness of the thin film based on a transmittance and a reflectance of the thin film measured by a spectrophotometer, and includes an envelope method and a full spectrum fitting method, etc., where the envelope method is the most commonly used one, but it generally requires a thicker thin film, which is not suitable for the ultra-thin films. The prism coupling method is a contact measurement method to determine a thickness and a refractive index of a thin film by placing a coupling prism on a sample surface of the thin film to introduce incident light into the measured thin film, and detecting and analyzing reflected light of different incident angles to determine a coupling angle of a waveguide film, where a measured thickness thereof cannot reach a scale range of the ultra-thin film. The interferometry is to determine a refractive index of thin films by using coherent light interference to form equal thickness interference fringes, which also has the same problem with that of the above methods. The ellipsometry measurement has advantages of non-destructive non-contact, high sensitivity and high precision, and its sensitivity to thickness may reach 0.01 nm, but the ellipsometry is an indirect measurement method, which requires computer fitting to obtain the thickness and optical constants (including a refractive index and an extinction coefficient) of the thin film. The ellipsometry measurement is an indirect measurement method, which detects geometric parameters and optical properties of a sample by measuring a change of a polarization state of light before and after the light is incident to the sample surface, and a measurement result needs to be fitted to an optical model by an algorithm to obtain the optical constants. Commonly used fitting methods include a point-to-point method and a oscillator model fitting method, where the point-to-point method is to give an initial value, and the optical constants of the ultra-thin film needs to be accurately estimated, otherwise it is easy to fall into a local optimal solution and cannot solve the correct optical constants; the oscillator model fitting method uses Lorenz oscillator, etc., and it is necessary to learn a knowledge of electronic transitions of the ultra-thin film in advance, and match measurement data to obtain the optical constants of the ultra-thin film. Regarding the ultra-thin film, properties such as electronic transitions thereof are often not well known, which leads to errors for a oscillator model fitting process. Therefore, to implement measurement of the ultra-thin film optical constants is a difficult point in the existing measurement technology.

In view of the above problems combined with the geometric properties of the ultra-thin film, some researchers have proposed a Taylor-expansion approximate direct calculation method based on an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ, and in 2017, Peep Adamson of Estonia (A new ellipsometric approach for determining dielectric function of graphene in the infrared spectral region. Journal of Modern Optics, 2017, 64 (3): 272-279) performed a first-order approximation on the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the ellipsometric parameters for graphene and similar materials on a transparent substrate, and by solving an approximate formula, calculation formulas of refractive index and extinction coefficient are obtained, and simulating calculation of graphene in an infrared band is performed; in 2018, Gwang-Hun Jung, et al. of Korea (Measuring the optical permittivity of two dimensional materials without a priori knowledge of electronic transitions [J]. Nanophotonics. 2018) adopted a similar method to perform first-order derivation on the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of p-light and s-light, and calculation formulas of refractive index and extinction coefficient of the ultra-thin film are obtained by solving the first-order equation, and by measuring and calculating two-dimensional materials such as molybdenum disulfide, tungsten disulfide and tungsten diselenide thin film on a sapphire substrate, it is verified that the method may calculate the optical constants of ultra-thin film more accurately in case of a longer wavelength band without a priori knowledge. The above two methods provide a new idea for determining the optical constants of the ultra-thin films, but there are also defects of limited calculation bands, and large errors occur in calculation of optical constants of a shorter wavelength range such as an ultraviolet band, etc.

SUMMARY

In view of the above defects or improvement requirements of the existing technology, the invention provides a rapid measurement method for an ultra-thin film optical constant, by performing second-order Taylor expansion approximation on an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio, and by calculating and solving approximate formulas, the optical constant of the ultra-thin film is measured rapidly, which has advantages of fast measurement, accurate measurement, etc., and is adapted to rapid measurement and characterization of optical constants for arbitrary ultra-thin film.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the invention provides a rapid measurement method for an ultra-thin film optical constant, which includes following steps:

S1: using a p-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_pand an s-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_sof an incident light irradiating to an ultra-thin film to be measured to express an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the ultra-thin film:

$ρ = \frac{r_{p}}{r_{s}};$

S2: performing a second-order Taylor expansion to

$ρ = \frac{r_{p}}{r_{s}}$

at d_f=0 while taking 2πd_f/λ as a variable to obtain a second-order approximation form:

$ρ \approx ρ_{0} + i ρ^{'} \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ} + (ρ_{1}^{″} + ρ_{2}^{″}) {(\frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ})}^{2}$

Where ρ₀is an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio of a substrate used by the ultra-thin film, d_fis a thickness of the ultra-thin film, λ is a wavelength of the incident light, and ρ′, ρ₁″ and ρ₂″ are all coefficients;

S3: performing merging, simplifying and substituting processing to the second-order approximation form for transforming the same into a one-variable quartic equation;

S4: solving the one-variable quartic equation to obtain a plurality of solutions of the optical constant of the ultra-thin film, and obtaining a correct solution through conditional judgment, where the correct solution is the optical constant of the ultra-thin film to be measured, so as to achieve the rapid measurement for the ultra-thin film optical constant.

Preferably, the p-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_pis calculated according to a following equation:

$r_{p} = \frac{\begin{matrix} n_{s u b} \cos α_{inc} - n_{0} \cos α_{tra} + i \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ} \\ (n_{f}^{2} \cos α_{inc} \cos α_{tra} - n_{0} n_{s u b} + n_{0} n_{s u b}^{3} \sin^{2} α_{t r a} / n_{f}^{2}) \end{matrix}}{\begin{matrix} n_{s u b} \cos α_{inc} + n_{0} \cos α_{t r a} + i \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ} \\ (n_{f}^{2} \cos α_{inc} \cos α_{t r a} + n_{0} n_{s u b} - n_{0} n_{s u b}^{3} \sin^{2} α_{tra} / n_{f}^{2}) \end{matrix}}$

Where n_subis an optical constant of the substrate used by the ultra-thin film, α_incis an incident angle of the incident light, n₀is an optical constant of a surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film, α_trais a refraction angle of the incident light transmitted to the substrate, d_fis a thickness of the ultra-thin film, λ is a wavelength of the incident light, and n_fis an optical constant of the ultra-thin film to be measured.

Preferably, the s-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_sis calculated according to a following equation:

$r_{s} = \frac{\begin{matrix} n_{0} \cos α_{inc} - n_{s u b} \cos α_{t r a} + i \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ} \\ (n_{0} n_{s u b} \cos α_{i n c} \cos α_{t r a} + n_{s u b}^{2} \cos α_{i n c}^{2} - n_{f}^{2}) \end{matrix}}{\begin{matrix} n_{0} \cos α_{i n c} + n_{s u b} \cos α_{t r a} + i \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ} \\ (n_{0} n_{s u b} \cos α_{i n c} \cos α_{t r a} - n_{s u b}^{2} \cos α_{i n c}^{2} + n_{f}^{2}) \end{matrix}}$

Where n_subis an optical constant of the substrate used by the ultra-thin film, α_incis an incident angle of the incident light, n₀is an optical constant of the surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film, α_trais a refraction angle of the incident light transmitted to the substrate, d_fis a thickness of the ultra-thin film, λ is a wavelength of the incident light, and n_fis an optical constant of the ultra-thin film to be measured.

Preferably, ρ′ is calculated according to a following equation:

$ρ^{'} = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}} \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{i n c}}{\cos^{2} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})} \frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) \cdot (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}}$

Where n₀is an optical constant of the surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film, α_incis an incident angle of the incident light, n_fis an optical constant of the ultra-thin film to be measured, n_subis an optical constant of the substrate used by the ultra-thin film, and α_trais a refraction angle of the incident light transmitted to the substrate.

Preferably, ρ₁″ is calculated according to a following equation:

$ρ_{1}^{″} = - 2 \frac{n_{0} n_{s u b}}{{(n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos^{2} α_{i n c}}{\cos^{3} (α_{i n c} - α_{tra})} {(\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}})}^{2}$

Preferably, ρ₂″ is calculated according to a following equation:

$ρ_{2}^{″} = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{sub}} \frac{\cos α_{i n c}}{{(n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{i n c}}{\cos^{2} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})}$

$(\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}}) (\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) n_{s u b}^{4} + (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2}) n_{f}^{2} n_{0}^{2}}{n_{f}^{2}})$

Preferably, the step S3 of performing merging, simplifying and substituting processing to the second-order approximation form for transforming the same into the one-variable quartic equation includes:

S31: letting:

$A = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}} \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{inc}}{\cos^{2} (α_{inc} - α_{t r a})}$

$B = - 2 \frac{n_{0} n_{s u b}}{{(n_{s u b} - n_{0})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos^{2} α_{i n c}}{\cos^{3} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})}$

$C = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{s u b}} \frac{\cos α_{i n c}}{{(n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{i n c}}{\cos^{2} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})}$

$D = \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ}$

S32: simplifying the second-order approximation form into:

$ρ = ρ_{0} + i A D \frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) \cdot (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}} + B {D^{2} (\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}})}^{2} + {CD}^{2} (\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}}) \frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) n_{s u b}^{4} + (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2}) n_{f}^{2} n_{0}^{2}}{n_{f}^{2}}$

S33: expanding and simplifying the equation of the step S32 to obtain a one-variable quartic equation related to n_f²:

para4·N_f⁴+para3·N_f³+para2·N_f²+para1·N_f+para0=0

Where N_f=n_f², para0, para1, para2, para3 and para4 are respectively a constant term, a one-order term coefficient, a quadratic term coefficient, a cubic term coefficient and a quartic term coefficient.

Preferably, the constant term para0, the one-order term coefficient para1, the quadratic term coefficient para2, the cubic term coefficient para3 and the quartic term coefficient para4 are represented as:

para0=BD²n₀⁴n_sub⁴−CD²n₀⁴n_sub⁶
para1=iADn₀²n_sub²−2BD²n₀⁴n_sub²−2BD²n₀²n_sub⁴+2CD²n₀²n_sub⁶
para2=−iADn₀²+BD²n₀⁴−iADn_sub²+4BD²n₀²n_sub²+2CD²n₀⁴n_sub²+BD²n_sub⁴−CD²n₀²n_sub⁴−CD²n_sub⁶−ρ+ρ₀
para3=iAD−2BD²n₀²−CD²n₀⁴−2BD²n_sub²−2CD²n₀²n_sub²+CD²n_sub⁴
para4=BD²+CD²n₀²

Preferably, the step S4 of obtaining the correct solution through conditional judgment includes: excluding optical constant solutions that do not satisfy physical conditions, and introducing remaining optical constant solutions satisfying the physical conditions into a Fresnel equation to calculate ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film, and determining the correct solution according to a degree of fitness between the calculated ellipsometric parameters and ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film obtained through the measurement.

In overall, compared with the prior art, the above technical scheme conceived by the invention has following technical advantages:

By performing Taylor second-order expansion to the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the ultra-thin film (generally refers to a thin film material with a thickness less than 10 nm), a Taylor second-order equation is adapted to achieve an approximation of the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ, at the same time, a non-linear equation that is originally unable to obtain analytical solutions is transformed into a one-variable quartic equation, so as to obtain the analytical solutions of the ultra-thin film optical constant through calculation. Compared with the existing methods for calculating the ultra-thin film optical constant, the method of the invention does not need to have a thorough understanding of the electronic transition of the material, and it does not need to estimate the initial value of the optical constant in a solving process. The method of the invention has no special limitation on the wavelength range and may be applied to the measurement of optical constants in a wider wavelength range. The method of the invention still has high measurement accuracy in the short wavelength range, accurate calculation results and small error, and which is very important for determination of the optical constants of the newly appeared ultra-thin films.

To make the aforementioned more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a rapid measurement method for an ultra-thin film optical constant according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates spectrum curves of optical constants in 250-1690 nm waveband of a silicon substrate according to an embodiment of the invention, where (a) is reflective index, and (b) is extinction coefficient.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an optical model of a GaAs film sample on the silicon substrate according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates spectrum curves of ellipsometric parameters in 250-1690 nm waveband of the silicon substrate according to an embodiment of the invention, where (a) is amplitude ratio, and (b) is phase difference.

FIG. 5 illustrates spectrum curves of GaAs film ellipsometric parameters in 250-1690 nm waveband on the silicon substrate according to an embodiment of the invention, where (a) is amplitude ratio, and (b) is phase difference.

FIG. 6 illustrates spectrum curves of calculated GaAs optical constants (two sets) in 250-1690 nm waveband according to an embodiment of the invention, where (a) is reflective index, and (b) is extinction coefficient.

FIG. 7 illustrates spectrum curves of ellipsometric parameters obtained through inversion of two sets of optical constant solutions and ellipsometric parameters obtained through measurement in 250-1690 nm waveband according to an embodiment of the invention, where (a) is amplitude ratio, and (b) is phase difference.

FIG. 8 illustrates spectrum curves of calculated GaAs optical constants (unique correct solution) in 250-1690 nm waveband according to an embodiment of the invention, where (a) is reflective index, and (b) is extinction coefficient.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely used for explaining the invention and are not intended to be limiting of the invention. Furthermore, the technical features involved in the various embodiments of the invention described below may be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

As shown in FIG. 1, an embodiment of the invention provides a rapid measurement method for an ultra-thin film optical constant, which includes following steps:

S1: obtaining a p-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_pand an s-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_sof a light source (incident light) incident to an ultra-thin film to be measured, and using r_pand r_sto express an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio

$ρ = \frac{r_{p}}{r_{s}} .$

To be specific, the p-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_pis calculated according to a following equation:

Where n_subis an optical constant of a substrate used by the ultra-thin film (with a thickness smaller than 10 nm), α_incis an incident angle of the incident light, n₀is an optical constant of a surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film, α_trais a refraction angle of the incident light transmitted to the substrate (a refraction angle of the incident light on the substrate), d_fis a thickness of the ultra-thin film, λ is a wavelength of the incident light, and n_fis an optical constant of the ultra-thin film.

Further, the s-light amplitude reflection coefficient r_sis calculated according to a following equation:

S2: performing a second-order Taylor expansion to

$ρ = \frac{r_{p}}{r_{s}}$

at d_f=0 while taking 2πd_f/λ as a variable to obtain a second-order approximation form:

$ρ \approx ρ_{0} + i ρ^{'} \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ} + (ρ_{1}^{″} + ρ_{2}) {(\frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ})}^{2}$

Where ρ₀is an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio of the bare substrate, d_fis a thickness of the ultra-thin film, λ is a wavelength of the incident light, and ρ′, ρ₁″ and ρ₂″ are respectively coefficients.

To be specific, ρ′ is calculated according to a following equation:

Where n₀is an optical constant of the surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film, α_incis an incident angle of the incident light, n_fis an optical constant of the ultra-thin film, n_subis an optical constant of the substrate used by the ultra-thin film, and α_trais a refraction angle of the incident light transmitted to the substrate.

Further, ρ₁″ is calculated according to a following equation:

Further, ρ₂″ is calculated according to a following equation:

$ρ_{2}^{″} = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{s u b}} \frac{\cos α_{i n c}}{{(n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{i n c}}{\cos^{2} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})} (\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}}) \frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) n_{s u b}^{4} + (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2}) n_{f}^{2} n_{0}^{2}}{n_{f}^{2}}$

S3: performing merging, simplifying and substituting processing to the second-order approximation form to transform the same into a one-variable quartic equation, which includes following sub-steps:

S31: letting:

$A = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}} \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{inc}}{\cos^{2} (α_{inc} - α_{t r a})} B = - 2 \frac{n_{0} n_{s u b}}{{(n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos^{2} α_{i n c}}{\cos^{3} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})} C = - 2 \frac{n_{0}}{n_{s u b}} \frac{\cos α_{i n c}}{{(n_{s u b}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\sin^{2} α_{i n c} \cdot \cos α_{i n c}}{\cos^{2} (α_{i n c} - α_{t r a})} D = \frac{2 π d_{f}}{λ}$

S32: introducing the above A-D to the second-order approximation form to obtain:

S33: expanding and simplifying the equation of the step S32 to obtain a one-variable quartic equation related to n_f²: para4·N_f⁴+para3·N_f³+para2·N_f²+para1·N_f+para0=0, specifically:

Letting:

$N_{f} = n_{f}^{2} and ρ = ρ_{0} + i A D \frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) \cdot (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}} + B {D^{2} (\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}})}^{2} + C D^{2} (\frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) (n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2})}{n_{f}^{2}}) \frac{(n_{f}^{2} - n_{0}^{2}) n_{s u b}^{4} + (n_{f}^{2} - n_{s u b}^{2}) n_{f}^{2} n_{0}^{2}}{n_{f}^{2}}$

simplifying

to obtain:

para4·N_f⁴+para3·N_f³+para2·N_f²+para1·N_f+para0=0

Where, para0 is a constant term:

para0=BD²n₀⁴n_sub⁴−CD²n₀⁴n_sub⁶

para1 is a one-order term coefficient:

para1=iADn₀²n_sub²−2BD²n₀⁴n_sub²−2BD²n₀²n_sub⁴+2CD²n₀²n_sub⁶

para2 is a quadratic term coefficient:

para2=−iADn₀²+BD²n₀⁴−iADn_sub²+4BD²n₀²n_sub²+2CD²n₀⁴n_sub²+BD²n_sub⁴−CD²n₀²n_sub⁴−CD²n_sub⁶−ρ+ρ₀⁴

para3 is a cubic term coefficient:

para3=iAD−2BD²n₀²−CD²n₀⁴−2BD²n_sub²−2CD²n₀²n_sub²+CD²n_sub⁴

para4 is a quartic term coefficient:

para4=BD²+CD²n₀²

S4: solving the one-variable quartic equation para4·N_f⁴+para3·N_f³+para2·N_f²+para1·N_f+para0=0 to obtain 8 solutions of the optical constant of the ultra-thin film, and obtaining a correct solution through conditional judgment, where the correct solution is the optical constant of the ultra-thin film to be measured, so as to achieve the rapid measurement for the ultra-thin film optical constant. To be specific, a Ferrari method is adopted to get 4 solutions for the one-variable quartic equation related to N_f, and after the square root, 8 solutions of n_fis obtained.

To be specific, the conditional judgment is performed in a following method to obtain the correct solution:

S41: excluding optical constant solutions according to physical conditions:

A refractive index n and an extinction coefficient k are required to satisfy following physical conditions: n=Re(n_f)>0 and k=−Im(n_f)>0, where Re(n_f) represents a real part of the optical constant n_f, Im(n_f) represents an imaginary part of the optical constant n_f, the corresponding refractive index n (n=Re (n_f)) and the extinction coefficient k (k=−Im (n_f)) are obtained according to real parts and imaginary parts of each of the optical constant solutions, and then most of the 8 solutions are excluded according to aforementioned physical conditions;

S42: excluding the remaining optical constant solutions by using a Fresnel equation:

The remaining optical constant solutions are introduced into the Fresnel equation to calculate ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film, and determining which one is the correct solution according to a degree of fitness between the calculated ellipsometric parameters and ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film obtained through the measurement, so as to obtain the unique correct solution. To be specific, the ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film obtained through calculation and the ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film obtained through the measurement are compared, and the solution corresponding to the ellipsometric parameter with the highest degree of fitness is the correct solution.

Before the method of the invention is used to measure the ultra-thin film optical constant n_f, following parameters are required to be determined: the surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film n₀, the optical constant of the substrate used by the ultra-thin film n_sub, the incident angle α_incof the incident light, the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ₀of the substrate, the amplitude reflection coefficient ρ of the ultra-thin film, the thickness d_fof the ultra-thin film, the wavelength λ of the incident light and the refraction angle α_traof the incident light transmitted to the substrate.

To be specific, the optical constants of the thin film may vary along with a change of the wavelength, and measured wavelength ranges of different instruments are also different, so that an appropriate measurement wavelength range may be selected according to the measurement requirements and equipment conditions, for example, a single wavelength or spectrum measurement, and then the optical constant n₀of the surrounding medium and the optical constant n_subof the substrate used by the ultra-thin film in the measurement wavelength range may be obtained, and in general, the surrounding medium in measurement is air, i.e. n₀=1. The optical constant of the substrate may be measured by an ellipsometer or other instrument, and if optical properties of the substrate are stable, known data in literatures may also be used. There is no specific requirement on the incident angle α_incof the incident light, which may be selected according to actual needs to ensure validity of the measured data, for example, 60°, 65° or 70°.

Regarding the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ₀of the substrate, a calculation equation thereof is: ρ₀=tan(ψ_sub)exp(iΔ_sub), and in the actual operation, the ellipsometric parameters of the substrate: an amplitude ratio Ψ_suband a phase difference Δ_subare obtained by using a general ellipsometer, an imaging ellipsometer, a Mueller matrix ellipsometer or other instruments capable of obtaining the ellipsometric parameter information of the sample, and after the ellipsometric parameters Ψ_suband Δ_subare obtained, the equation ρ₀=tan(Ψ_sub)exp(iΔ_sub) is used to calculate the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ₀of the substrate.

Regarding the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the ultra-thin film in the final one-variable quartic equation, a calculation equation thereof is ρ=tan(Ψ_f)exp(iΔ_f), and in the actual operation, the ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film: an amplitude ratio Ψ_fand a phase difference Δ_fare obtained by using a general ellipsometer, an imaging ellipsometer, a Mueller matrix ellipsometer or other instruments capable of obtaining the ellipsometric parameter information of the sample, and after the ellipsometric parameters Ψ_fand Δ_fare obtained, the equation ρ=tan(Ψ_f)exp(iΔ_f) is used to calculate the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the ultra-thin film.

The thickness d_fof the ultra-thin film may be determined according to measurement approaches of AFM, SEM or the like. Regarding the wavelength λ of the incident light, a range thereof is determined according to an actual requirement. To be specific, the method of the invention may implement calculation of the optical constants of two-dimensional materials from an ultraviolet band to an infrared band, and implement calculation of the optical constants of ordinary ultra-thin films (with a thicknesses less than 10 nm) from a partial visible light band to the infrared band can be calculated. The refraction angle α_traof the incident light transmitted to the substrate is calculated according to a following equation:

n₀sin(α_inc)=n_subsin(α_tra)

An embodiments of the invention is provided below, and in the embodiment, a spectroscopic ellipsometer is used to measure a GaAs film with a thickness of 3 nm (d_f=3 nm) on a silicon substrate, and the optical constants of the ultra-thin film are rapidly calculated by introducing the ellipsometric parameters of the substrate and the thin film to an optical constant solving process.

First, various parameters are obtained, and the spectroscopic ellipsometer is adopted in the embodiment, the measurement wavelength range is Γ=[250, 1690] nm, and the optical constant n₀of the surrounding medium of the ultra-thin film and the optical constant n_subof the substrate in the wavelength range of [250, 1690] nm are obtained, and in the measurement, the surrounding medium is air n₀=1, the substrate is made of silicon, optical constants of the silicon is relatively stable, and the optical constants of the silicon substrate are shown in FIG. 2; the measured incident angle α_inc=65° is selected; the refraction angle α_tra(λ) of the incident light transmitted to the silicon substrate is calculated according to the equation: n₀sin(α_inc)=n_sub(λ)sin(α_tra(λ)); the ellipsometric parameters Ψ_sub(λ) and Δ_sub(λ) of the silicon substrate are measured, and a measured optical model is shown in FIG. 3, the measured ellipsometric parameters of the silicon substrate is as shown in FIG. 4, and after the spectroscopic ellipsometer is adopted to obtain data, the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ₀of the substrate is calculated: ρ₀=ρ_sub(λ)=tan(Ψ_sub(λ))exp(iΔ_sub(λ)); the ellipsometric parameters Ψ_f(λ) and Δ_f(λ) of the GaAs film are calculated, the spectroscopic ellipsometer is used the same as the previous step, and a measurement result is shown in FIG. 5, and after data is obtained, the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the GaAs ultra-thin film is calculated: ρ=ρ_f(λ)=tan(Ψ_f(λ))exp(iΔ_f(λ))

Then, the aforementioned obtained various parameters are introduced into the one-variable quartic equation para4·N_f⁴+para3·N_f³+para2·N_f²+para1·N_f+para0=0 to calculate the optical constants n_f(λ) of the GaAs film. 8 optical constants of the GaAs film are obtained according to the above calculation process, and positive and negative of the refractive index and of the extinction coefficient are used to exclude 6 of the 8 solutions, and the remained two solutions (i.e. two sets of optical constants) are as shown in FIG. 6, and two sets of ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film are obtained by inversion of the remained two sets of optical constants introduced into the Fresnel equation, and then the calculated ellipsometric parameters are compared with measurement values (i.e. the measured ellipsometric parameters of the ultra-thin film), as shown in FIG. 7, and the solution corresponding to the ellipsometric parameter having the highest degree of fitness with the measurement value is selected as the correct solution of the optical constant of the GaAs film, as shown in FIG. 8.

In the aforementioned embodiment, the ellipsometer is adopted for measurement, for example, a laser ellipsometer is used to implement calculation of ultra-thin film single waveform optical constants. In the aforementioned calculation process, only the GaAs film on the silicon substrate is taken as an example for description, and for other types of ultra-thin films or different types of substrates, rapid measurement of optical constants may also be performed according to the same method.

In summary, in the rapid measurement method for the ultra-thin film optical constant, by performing Taylor second-order expansion to the amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ, a second-order equation is adapted to achieve an approximation of the original amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ, at the same time, a non-linear equation that is originally unable to obtain analytical solutions is transformed into a one-variable quartic equation, so as to obtain the analytical solutions of the ultra-thin film optical constant to achieve rapid measurement and calculation of the ultra-thin film optical constant.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention, for example, to use other instruments capable of measuring polarization information, or replacing the type of the ultra-thin film or the substrate, etc. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the invention covers modifications and variations provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

Number	Name	Date	Kind
5956147	Jellison, Jr.	Sep 1999	A
9235668	Poiroux	Jan 2016	B1
20170115112	Srocka	Apr 2017	A1

Rapid measurement method for ultra-thin film optical constant

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