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Silver nanoparticle films were deposited by sputtering at room temperature and were annealed while monitoring by real time spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The nanoparticle dielectric functions (0.75 eV-6.5 eV) obtained by SE were modeled using Lorentz and generalized oscillators for the nanoparticle plasmon polariton (NPP) and interband transitions, respectively. The nanoparticle melting point could be identified from variations in the oscillator parameters during annealing, and this identification was further confirmed after cooling through significant, irreversible changes in these parameters relative to the as-deposited film. The variation in melting point with physical thickness, and thus average nanoparticle diameter, as measured by SE enables calculation of the surface energy density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineered thin films consisting of periodic arrays of silicon microcrystallites in a hydrogenated amorphous silicon host matrix have been prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition where the hydrogen dilution of silane is modulated in multiple cycles. These types of films have been guided by a phase evolution diagram, depicting the deposition conditions and film thickness at which the material exhibits amorphous, microcrystalline, or mixed-phase (amorphous+microcrystalline) characteristics, developed for intrinsic Si:H prepared with varying H2 dilution on unhydrogenated a-Si:H. Real time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) has been used in situ to noninvasively determine the phase evolution of the resulting hydrogenated mixed-phase (amorphous+microcrystalline) silicon thin films and corroborated with dark-field transmission electron microscopy. Such tailored microstructures are of growing interest as components of thin film photovoltaic devices, and RTSE is shown to be a key technique for structure verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multichannel ellipsometer in the dual rotating-compensator configuration has been developed for applications in real time Mueller matrix spectroscopy of anisotropic surfaces and thin films. The sequence of optical elements for this instrument configuration can be denoted PC[sub 1r](5ω)SC[sub 2r](3ω)A, where P, S, and A represent the polarizer, sample, and analyzer. In this sequence, C[sub 1r] and C[sub 2r] represent the first and second compensators, rotating with angular frequencies of 5ω and 3ω, respectively, where ω=π/T[sub C] is the base angular frequency (corresponding to 2 Hz) and T[sub C]=0.25 s is the fundamental optical period. The instrument can provide 170 point spectra over the wavelength range from 235 nm (5.3 eV) to 735 nm (1.7 eV) in all 16 elements of the unnormalized Mueller matrix with minimum acquisition and repetition times of T[sub C]=0.25 s. In this study, instrumentation calibration procedures are demonstrated in the transmission geometry without a sample, including (i) alignment of the two MgF[sub 2] zero-order biplate compensators, (ii) determination of the retardance and phase spectra for the compensators, (iii) determination of the offset angles for the optical elements, and (iv) characterization of the spectral response function of the ellipsometer. Calibration procedure (iv) allows the (1,1) element of the transmission Mueller matrix to be determined; thus the unnormalized Mueller matrix can be obtained. The dual rotating-compensator multichannel ellipsometer is assessed with respect to its performance in transmission without a sample, and is then applied in the transmission geometry to study anisotropy, depolarization, and light scattering effects for a MgF[sub 2] helicoidally sculptured thin film on a glass substrate. Numerous future applications of this instrument are anticipated for real time analysis of complex surfaces and thin films in the reflection geometry as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the design and construction of guarded hot plate instruments for measuring heat flow in plane-parallel glass surfaces. Details on the conducting material surrounding the insulating region of the structure; Design considerations for guarded hot plates; Information on the validation process of the development of the measuring instrument.

Responds to Andrew Vogt's comments on the article in volume 34 of the 'Journal of Mathematical Physics,' on the differentiability of the position probability density rho(x/t). Oversight in the constraint on rho(x/t); Error arising from an inappropriate simplification in assuring boundary conditions.

It is shown that imposition of the requirement of differentiability on a probability distribution imposes a structure on the probability formalism having the appearance of physical theory. Both the classical and quantum mechanical descriptions for the motion of a single point particle as consequences of describing the motion in terms of a differentiable probability density are exhibited. It is shown that the particle must appear as acted upon by a force having the form of the Lorentz force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a computer simulation of a one-dimensional particle migration by local hopping of Chandrasekhar type with no local bias. Concept of local particle traffic; Cases of reflecting and absorbing boundaries; Specification and evaluation of the hopping model.

A unique rapid-scanning ellipsometer employing a rotating polarizer optical configuration and a multichannel detector for a 1.5–4.5 eV spectral range, has been developed recently for real time studies of film growth and surfaces. This is a new application of the photodiode array-based optical multichannel detector that entails waveform analysis of the incident irradiance at each photon energy. For accurate ellipsometric spectra {ψ(hν),Δ(hν)}, the raw data in the form of photon counts, integrated over four or more equal sectors of polarizer rotation, must be corrected for systematic errors originating from the detection system. Simple procedures are described to characterize and correct for the most significant errors including detection system nonlinearity, image persistence, and scattered stray light in the spectrograph/detector enclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a typical reflection ellipsometry experiment, one characterizes the polarization state change that a polarized light beam undergoes upon reflection from a specular surface. This measurement provides ρ≡rp/rs, where rp and rs are the complex amplitude reflection coefficients of the surface for p- and s-polarized waves. Nearly 15 years have passed since the development of automatic ellipsometers along with the detailed calibration, error analysis, and data reduction procedures to be used with them. More specifically, these powerful instruments permit (1) determination of bulk dielectric functions and nondestructive depth profiling of static multilayered materials through measurements as a function of photon energy and (2) characterization of dynamic surfaces in adverse environments through measurements as a function of time at fixed photon energy. In the 15 intervening years, the major research thrusts in ellipsometry have been the exploitation of these instruments in materials and process characterization in diverse areas of materials science and electrochemistry. One of the simplest and most popular automatic ellipsometers is a photometric instrument in which one or more of the optical elements (polarizer, compensator, and/or analyzer) is designed to rotate continuously. In this article, the major developments in rotating element ellipsometry are reviewed since the first report of an automatic rotating analyzer instrument by Cahan and Spanier in 1969. The topics covered include rotating element configurations, calibration, characterization of errors and imperfections, absolute accuracy, data reduction, precision, and a review of the real-time applications accessible to these instruments. The sections on calibration, errors, and data reduction include new material and are written from a practical standpoint to assist in instrumentation setup and troubleshooting. The development and improvement of next-generation rotating element instruments that... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Develops a multichannel spectroscopic ellipsometer based on the rotation-compensator principle. Application of thin film growth for real time Stoke vector spectroscopy; Advantage of the ellipsometer design over the rotating-polarizer design; Characterization of the time evolution of light scattering.

An expansion of the capabilities of high-speed, multichanneI spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is described that involves simultaneous measurement of the reflectance spectrum along with the two spectra in the ellipsometric angles (ψ, Δ). previously, a novel rotating-polarizer spectroscopic ellipsometer has been perfected that employs a photodiode array detector for high-speed acquisition of (ψ, Δ) spectra, designed for real-time studies of thin-film growth. For a polarizer angular rotation frequency of ω[sub 0], the (ψ, Δ) values at a given photon energy are deduced from the 2ω[sub 0] Fourier components of the detector irradiance, normalized by the dc component. A third parameter, the weighted reflectance R[sub A], can be obtained from the dc component and from a calibration based on the known optical properties of the substrate measured prior to film growth, With (ω[sub 0]/2π) = 12.5 Hz, three-parameter data sets, [ψ(hυ), Δ (h υ), R[sub A](h &upsilonl); 1.5 ≤ h υ ≤ 4.5 eV], can be acquired with a time ' resolution as short as 40 ms. Although R[sub A] provides complementary information to (ψ, Δ), it has yet to be exploited in conjunction with real-time SE until this study. A resilient analysis approach, based on mathematical inversion and least-squares fitting of the real-time three-parameter data sets, is designed to yield the film dielectric functions and thicknesses independently at each time during the early stages of thin-film growth. The three-parameter approach has been. applied successfully in studies of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films PrePared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and aluminum and silver films prepared by physical vapor deposition. For the a-Si:H films, R[sub A](h ν) exhibits deviations as large as ∼3% from that predicted in modeling (ψ, Δ) alone. The deviations result from light scattering by plasma... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submonolayer sensitivity to thin-film nucleation and growth in real time on the millisecond scale has been achieved with a unique rotating polarizer multichannel ellipsometer. Continuous spectra in the ellipsometry angles {ψ(hv),Δ(hv)} consisting of ∼50 points from hv=1.5 to 4.3 eV have been obtained with acquisition and repetition times as short as 16 and 32 ms, respectively. As an example of the instrument capabilities, we present results for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) growth on c-Si by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at a rate of 400 Å/min. In this example, the acquisition and repetition times are both 64 ms, and at this speed a precision in (ψ,Δ) of ∼0.02–0.03° is obtained under optimum conditions. We observe a-Si:H nucleation in the first 2 s of deposition, and detect relaxation of nucleation-induced surface roughness with submonolayer sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study has been made of the influence on shock spectrum curves of the interaction between a superstructure and its nonrigid foundation. Such interaction causes the spectrum values of interest to lie in the valleys corresponding to the superstructure's fixed base natural frequencies, while the peak spectrum values occur at the combined system natural frequencies. Normal mode theory for lumped mass systems is reviewed briefly and the necessary equations are presented. These equations demonstrate how shock spectrum data are applicable for calculating deflections, stresses, etc., for structures subjected to transient excitations. The concept of design shock spectra is discussed, and an example shows how design spectrum data might be applied to a particular case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]