Fast and cheap method to qualitatively measure the thickness and uniformity of ZrO2 thin films

This work presents a fast method to determine qualitatively the uniformity and the thickness of transparent or semitransparent thin films in the visib le to near-infrared region. The method proposed is based on the information recorded by a colour scanner in the form of coloured regions, due to the c onstructive interferences caused by multibeam wavelength light sources as f unction of the film thickness and refractive index. The method is well appl ied in transparent films, where the uniformity cannot be seen by visual ins pection. This paper shows that the results obtained for ZrO2 films are sati sfactory enabling the application of this technique to determine the films uniformity in fast and cheap way. (C) 2001 Eisevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.