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Spectroscopic ellipsometry characterization of coatings on polymeric substrates can be challenging due to the substrate optical anisotropy. We compare four characterization strategies for thin coating layers on anisotropic polymeric substrates with regard to accuracy of the resulting layer thickness and coating optical constants. Each strategy differs in measured data type, model construction, implementation complexity, and inherent capabilities and sensitivity to the coating properties. Best practices and limitations are discussed for each strategy.

We investigated the optical behaviors of vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) films through the semiconductor-to-metal (STM) phase transition using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Correlations between film thickness and refractive index were observed resulting from the absorbing nature of these films. Simultaneously analyzing data at multiple temperatures using Kramers-Kronig consistent oscillator models help identify film thickness. Nontrivial variations in resulting optical constants were observed through STM transition. As temperature increases, a clear increase is observed in near infrared absorption due to Drude losses that accompany the transition from semiconducting to metallic phases. Thin films grown on silicon and sapphire substrate present different optical properties and thermal hysteresis due to lattice stress and compositional differences.

It is a well-known challenge to determine refractive index (n) from ultra-thin films where the thickness is less than about 10 nm [1,2]. We discovered an interesting exception to this issue while characterizing spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) data from isotropic, free-standing polymer films. Ellipsometry analysis shows that both thickness and refractive index can be independently determined for free-standing films as thin as 5 nm. Simulations further confirm an orthogonal separation between thickness and index effects on the experimental SE data. Effects of angle of incidence and wavelength on the data and sensitivity are discussed. While others have demonstrated methods to determine refractive index from ultra-thin films [3,4], our analysis provides the first results to demonstrate high-sensitivity to the refractive index from ultra-thin layers.