Nondestructive depth profiling by spectroscopic ellipsometry

It is shown that spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) studies followed by the regression analysis of the SE data can yield information nondestructively and in a nonperturbing manner on the depth profile of multilayer structure; such as (i) quantitative information on the thickness and the dielectric function of each layer, (ii) the structure (whether crystalline or amorphous) as well as the degree of crystallinity of each layer, (iii) characterization of the oxide layer if present on the specimen, and (iv) microroughness of the surface, if present. Furthermore, it is shown that these results are in excellent agreement with the results obtained on the same specimens using cross-section transmission electron microscopy.