Optical functions of silicon from reflectance and ellipsometry on silicon-on-insulator and homoepitaxial samples

Abstract

The optical properties of silicon have been determined from 0.2 to 6.5 eV at room temperature, using reflectance spectra of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and ellipsometric spectra of homoepitaxial samples. Optimized Fabry-Perot-type SOI resonators exhibit high finesse even in near ultraviolet. Very high precision values of the real part of the refractive index are obtained in infrared up to a photon energy of 1.3 eV. The spectra of the extinction coefficient, based on observations of light attenuation, extend to 3.2 eV due to measurements on SOI layers as thin as 87 nm. These results allowed us to correct spectroellipsometric data on homoepitaxial samples for the presence of reduced and stabilized surface layers.