Profile characterization of diffraction gratings using angle-resolved polarimetric measurements

Abstract

Abstract. Development of the characterization tools and techniques used by semi-conductor industry directs not only towards increasing of the instrumental precision, to push limits of the optical characterization methods to the smallest lines, but also towards a decreased dependency of the used tools on the tool-to-tool calibration procedures. The challenge approached in this work is to use multiple independent optical configurations to determine overall accuracy of the results with minimal or no assistance of the other non-optical methods. The approach presented here is based on a well-known change of sensitivity of the optical model parameters at the different azimuthal measurement configurations. The full potential of this method can only be unlocked using complete Mueller matrix measurements providing complete information on the anisotropic nature of the gratings. The measurements at multiple azimuth configurations, used in this work, illustrate the potential of the method on the experimental data provided by the angle-resolved and spectrally resolved Mueller matrix polarimetric tools. The results are consistent with the single-line AFM measurements used as an independent reference.

Polarization control at the microscopic and electronic structure observatory

“…in software codes like "GSolver" or "Grating" [46]. Experimentally, this can be accomplished by Müller matrix polarimetry, a technique typically applied to characterize gratings in the optical regime [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. To date, there has been no thorough theoretical study on how the grating affects polarization, and experimental studies are rather rare in the soft X-ray regime [38,[56][57][58].…”

“…At lower photon energies where the refraction angles at the monochromator assembly are large, however, the polarization can change by values well on the order of 5 to 15 %. Additionally, the actual grating can introduce sizable and nontrivial effects, which are not captured by this simplistic plane mirror model [53,56,57,60].…”

Effective medium approximation based interpretation for Mueller matrix spectra of polydimethylsiloxane gratings

“…Grating-device functions include laser-beam deflection, modulation, coupling, filtering, distributed feedback, distributed Bragg reflection, holographic beam combining, wavelength multiplexing, wavelength demultiplexing, and others. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) has been widely used for the analysis of dielectric gratings [1][2][3][4][5][6]. * Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.…”

Snapshot Mueller polarimetry for biomedical diagnostic related to human liver fibrosis: evaluation of the method for biomedical assessments

“…Polarisation is a powerfull property of light which is used in many fields of physical optics, 4, 5 such as semiconductors analysis, 6 or liquid cristals properties analysis, 7 or optical properties of gratting, 8,9 metrology, 10,11 microscopy 12, 13 as a complementary techniques to those existing, 14 imaging set-up, 15 or biomedical diagnostic (optical properties of tissues, [15][16][17][18] melanoma detection, 19 imaging of skin abnormalities, 20 evaluation of irradiation level of tissues, 21 or ophtalmology diagnostic [22][23][24]. A Snapshot Mueller Matrix Polarimeter (SMMP) [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] give the opportunity to measure the optical properties of materials, and especially biomaterials, by analysing the modification of polarimetric coefficients of the light that is transmitted through the sample thickness, and/or reflected or scattered from the sample surface.…”