| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Thin Film | Thursday Sessions |
| Session TF2-ThA |
| Session: | Computational Aspects of Thin Films |
| Presenter: | X. Wang, University of California at Davis |
| Authors: | Y.Y. Fei, University of California at Davis X.D. Zhu, University of California at Davis X. Wang, University of California at Davis H.B. Lu, Chinese Academy of Sciences G.Z. Yang, Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Light reflection from an optically smooth yet atomically rough film on a smooth solid substrate formed by deposition or erosion is a convenient source of information on morphology and chemical make-up of the film. We show that changes in optical reflectivity for s-polarized (TE mode) and p-polarized (TM mode) components, defined as (rp - rp0)/rp0 - (rs - rs0)/rs0 = Δp - Δs, induced by such a film, is generally related to structural and chemical properties of such a film through a mean-field theory. Here rp0 and rs0 are the reflectivity of a bare substrate, and rp and rs are the reflectivity when the film is added onto the substrate. According to the theory, Δp - Δs consists of a term that is proportional to the thickness of the rough portion of the film, a term that is proportional to the density of unit cells embedded in terraces, and a term that is proportional to the density of unit cells situated at step edges. The proportionality constants are functions of the overall thickness and chemical make-up of the film. We apply the theory to analysis of a wide range of growth and adsorption experiments studied with the oblique-incidence reflectivity difference (OI-RD) technique.