Study of polyethylene nanolayers by evanescent light microscopy

Nanometer polyethylene (PE) thin films were prepared by Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE). Insulating PE thin films of different thicknesses, below 200 nm, were fabricated by varying the deposition conditions. We then used the Differential Evanescent Light Intensity (DELI) microscopy technique for thickness profiles investigation of the PE nanolayers together with AFM measurements for calibration. A phenomenological model for the interaction between the evanescent waves and the deposited material and simulations of the nanofilms evanescent light scattering using the Maxwell equation solver FullWAVE are presented.