CRITICAL EDGE STUDIES OF HIGHLY ABSORBING ANISOTROPIC FILMS

The effect of a thin highly absorbing film on the near critical angle reflectivity can be used to determine the thickness and the dielectric constants of the film. This technique has previously been used to cha racterize a Langmuir-Blodgett film deposited on a glass prism within t he assumption of a uniaxial system with its axis perpendicular to the prism surface. In this study the technique is extended by use of a pyr amid, allowing data to be taken in two orthogonal planes. Information is thereby gained on the tilt angle of the dielectric tensor with resp ect to the substrate normal. In this case the optical properties of th e film accord with a uniaxial tensor tilted at 36 +/- 1-degrees to the normal.