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Probes the evolution of surface roughness over a wide range of film thickness during the growth of glow discharge hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) using in situ ellipsometry. Differences in the resulting film properties; Factor to which the columnar morphology observed for SiH[sub4]:argon films is attributed; Description of the pseudodielectric function.

In situ and ex situ characterization methods have been applied to investigate the properties of (Ag,Cu)InSe2 (ACIS) thin films. Data acquired from real time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) experiments were analyzed to extract the evolution of the nucleating, bulk, and surface roughness layer thicknesses. The evolution of these layer thicknesses suggests a transition from Volmer-Weber to Stranski-Krastanov type behavior when Cu is replaced by Ag. The complex dielectric functions of ACIS at both deposition and room temperature as a function of film composition were also extracted from the RTSE data, enabling parameterization of the alloy optical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry was applied to measure the dielectric functions &eh; of polycrystalline CdTe thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering. The observable critical point (CP) energies determined for the films in best fits to d2&eh;/dE2 are shifted relative to those for single crystal CdTe. The energy shift of the critical point designated as En is attributed to in-plane stress X with linear stress coefficient CX(En). By analyzing these shifts, it was found that stress (1) builds with thickness in as-deposited films, (2) relaxes with increasing substrate temperature at fixed thickness, and (3) is relaxed uniformly in CdCl2 treated films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]