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An imaging Mueller matrix ellipsometer is used to measure structures in measuring fields in the micrometre range, which are too small for conventional ellipsometry. Line and grid structures are measured and evaluated with the help of numerical simulations using the finite element method to characterize the structure parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold gratings were measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry and modeled by the finite element method to investigate the capabilities of optical dimensional metrology for plasmonic diffractive structures. The gratings were prepared by electron beam lithography using parameters determined by finite element simulations for significant variations of the amplitude ratio and phase shift of the polarized reflection coefficients to achieve high sensitivity for both the measurement of the grating dimensions and the sensing capabilities. Sub-nanometer sensitivity was shown to determine the grating dimensions and the thickness of an adsorbed layer to be detected in both traditional reflection and Kretschmann-Raether (KR) configurations. The sensitivity for the refractive index of the ambient was calculated to be 10−5 at best, which is not significantly better than the sensitivities for plane gold layers in KR configurations. However, in diffraction-based resonant setups, the high sensitivity dips can be shifted to a larger spectral range, which is highly significant in many applications. It was also revealed that 2D models assuming a perfect geometry fit the measured ellipsometry spectra only qualitatively, leaving room for model development in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We realized an imaging Mueller matrix microscope for nanostructure characterization. For investigations on nanoform characterization via Mueller matrix images, we measured and simulated Mueller matrix images of specially designed nanostructures. As an approach towards machine learning evaluation in imaging ellipsometry, we calculated Haar-like features of the images and observed a higher sensitivity to subwavelength features in off-diagonal matrix elements compared to microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanowire structures arranged in a hexagonal lattice are to be characterized in terms of their diameter, height and pitch. A scatterometer and an imaging Mueller matrix ellipsometer, which is a combination of a commercial Mueller matrix ellipsometer and a microscope, have been used as measurement tools. These measurements are supported by numerical simulations using the finite element method to characterize the structure parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]