Determination of small tilt angles of short GaSb nanopillars using UV–visible Mueller matrix ellipsometry

We demonstrate that small tilts away from the substrate normal, of short (30–40nm high) nanopillars, may be detected and modeled by spectroscopic UV–Visible Mueller Matrix Ellipsometry (MME). The pillars were produced by sputtering a GaSb substrate with a low energy unfocused ion beam. It has previously been found that the pillars will point in the direction of the ion flux. For both samples reported here, the ion-incidence was unintentionally tilted away from the substrate normal by 2.8 and 4.8°. The MME measurements were performed using both multiple angles of incidence, and 360° rotation of the incidence plane. Graded uniaxial effective medium models were fitted to the experimental data, and through Euler angle rotations of the dielectric tensor, the tilt angle and the orientation of the pillar direction, were obtained. The UV part of the spectrum enhanced the tilt angle sensitivity down to 0.02–0.05°. A data presentation that enhances the understanding of the symmetry in the crystallographic information obtained from spectroscopic MME is proposed. The off block diagonal Mueller matrix elements are more sensitive to the in-plane anisotropy, whereas for small tilt angles m14 scales approximately with θsin(ϕ). ► Mueller Matrix Ellipsometry used to detect small tilt angles of GaSb nanopillars ► Modeled as a graded anisotropic Bruggeman effective medium ► Two different gradient profiles; linear in diameter and linear in fill factor ► The off-diagonal elements allow for high sensitivity to the in plane anisotropies