Thin-Film Optical Constants Determined from Infrared Reflectance and Transmittance Measurements

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A general method based upon reflectance and transmittance measurements in the infrared region has been developed for the determination of the optical constants n( v) and k( v) of thin films deposited on any substrate (transparent or not). The corresponding computer program, written in FORTRAN 77, involves three main parts: (1) a matrix formalism to compute reflection and transmission coefficients of multilayered systems; (2) an iterative Newton-Raphson method to estimate the optical constants by comparison of the calculated and experimental values; and (3) a fast Kramers-Krönig transform to improve the accuracy of calculating the refractive index. The first part of this program can be used independently to simulate reflection and transmission spectra of any multilayered system using various experimental conditions. Two practical examples are given for illustration. Simulation of reflection spectra at grazing incidence for thin films deposited on a metal surface and determination of the optical constants for thin CaF2 layers deposited on a silicon substrate are presented.