Use of exchanging media in ATR configurations for determination of thickness and optical constants of thin metallic films

Fiber-optic surface-plasmon resonance for the determination of thickness and optical constants of thin metal films

We demonstrate that the thickness and the dielectric constants of thin gold films deposited on the surface of a fiber core can be quantitatively determined as a single set of solutions by the simple measurement of the fiber-optic surface-plasmon resonance responses. This method is capable of directly characterizing metal films with curved surfaces: this is very hard to perform by use of the conventional optical techniques of reflectometry and ellipsometry. The theoretical errors for the experimental fiber are estimated to be within d +/- 2%, epsilon(r) +/- 1%, and epsilon(i) +/- 15%.

Determination of dielectric permittivity and thickness of a metal layer from a surface plasmon resonance experiment

In this paper we present a fast method for the determination of dielectric permittivity epsilon= -epsilon(r) + iepsilon(i) and thickness d of metal layers from surface plasmon resonance reflection curves. The method is an iteration process using starting parameters derived directly from a reflection curve. The method is tested with simulations and is applied to experimental results. Accuracies reached for silver layers between 25-100 nm and gold layers between 40-75 nm are better than: epsilon(r) +/-1%; epsilon(i) +/-13% and d +/-8%.