A Brief History and State of the Art of Ellipsometry

Abstract

Ellipsometry is a nonperturbing optical technique that uses the change in the state of polarization of light upon reflection for the ex-situ and in-situ and real-time characterization of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and nanostructured materials. This chapter identifies the crucial ideas from which the ellipsometry technique derives, provides the key relationships for ellipsometry and presents a brief introduction to the essential ellipsometry configurations and hardware.