Optical functions of transparent thin films of SrTiO(3), BaTiO(3), and SiO(x) determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry.

A procedure is presented for accurately determining the thickness, optical functions, and surfaceroughness characteristics of thin-film insulators from two-channel spectroscopic polarization-modulation ellipsometry data. For films with minimal surface roughness, the optical functions can be determined over the entire measured spectrum; for rougher films, the analysis of the spectroscopic ellipsometry data yields meaningful values of the optical functions only in the transparent region. In general, the films must be transparent in a given range of wavelengths sampled by the ellipsometer so that at least two interference oscillations can be observed. The use of the procedure is illustrated with the determination of the optical functions of SrTiO(3) and BaTiO(3) thin films grown on MgO, and of SiO(x) films grown on Si. For SrTiO(3) and BaTiO(3), the thin-film results are compared with the measured optical functions of the respective bulk materials.