Multichannel Mueller Matrix Ellipsometry for Simultaneous Real-Time Measurement of Bulk Isotropic and Surface Anisotropic Complex Dielectric Functions of Semiconductors

We have applied a dual rotating-compensator multichannel ellipsometer to acquire spectra (~2.0--4.6 eV) in all 16 elements of the Mueller matrix associated with a specularly reflecting surface, in a minimum time of 0.25 s. In this initial study, such results have been collected for the (110) silicon surface at an incidence angle of ~70^∘ and have been used to derive spectra in the bulk isotropic dielectric function εb=ε1b-iε2b and the surface-induced dielectric function anisotropy Δε=Δε₁-iΔε₂. Thus, this instrument shows promise for simultaneous real-time measurement of εb and Δε spectra in oblique reflection during the fabrication of semiconductor structures having bulk isotropic components.