2-MODULATOR GENERALIZED ELLIPSOMETRY - EXPERIMENT AND CALIBRATION

A two-modulator generalized ellipsometer is described that is capable of measuring all 16 elements of a sample Mueller matrix with four meas urements made at different azimuthal orientations of the polarization state generator and polarization state detector. If the sample can he described with a Mueller-Jones matrix, only a single measurement is ne eded. Only two calibration steps are needed to determine the fundament al operating parameters of the instrument. A reflection measurement fr om silicon is presented as an example, which illustrates that the elem ents of the Mueller-Jones matrix can be measured to an accuracy of sim ilar to 0.1-0.2%. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.