General approach to reliable characterization of thin metal films

Abstract

Optical constants of thin metal films are strongly dependent on deposition conditions, growth mode, and thickness. We propose a universal characterization approach that allows reliable determination of thin metal film optical constants as functions of wavelength and thickness. We apply this approach to determination of refractive index dispersion of silver island films embedded between silica layers.

Tailoring optical and non-optical properties of interference coating materials through the explicit use of small-scale optical inhomogeneities

“…For practical purposes, an easier approach is possible. Owing to the small size of the metal islands and their small inter-island distances, the description of the optical properties of the island fi lm can be performed within the limits of a homogeneous layer model [19] , introducing effective optical constants of the metal island fi lm. Then, these island fi lms become accessible to typical thin fi lm design and characterization software.…”

Comparison of two techniques for reliable characterization of thin metal–dielectric films

“…In recent years, a number of papers related to characterization and modeling of metal-dielectric thin films have been published [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The permanently growing interest in the study of thin metal and metal-dielectric films is explained by their specific optical properties, which allow using these films in the design of multilayer structures of special types [4,6,14,15,[17][18][19][20][21].…”

“…In the case of metaldielectric structures, characterization results and design process are interconnected in a more complicated way than in the case of conventional dielectric coatings. The reason is that wavelength dependencies of the optical constants of thin metal-dielectric films are strongly dependent on film thickness [5,7,9,12,13,16,22]. This means that for design purposes, not one but a series of metal-dielectric films with a growing amount of deposited metal is to be carefully characterized.…”

“…Recently, an approach to reliable characterization of such metal-dielectric film series was proposed [16]. It was shown in [16] that optical parameters of thin metal films can be reliably determined from ellipsometric measurement data.…”

Design and production of bicolour reflecting coatings with Au metal island films

“…Nevertheless, one has to keep in mind that optical constants of MIFs are strongly dependent on thickness [12]. It is necessary to take this dependence into account in the design process in order to fully integrate MIFs in numerical optimization [15,16].…”