Determination of thickness, refractive index, and

thickness irregularity for semiconductor thin films

from transmission spectra
Akram K. S. Aqili and Asghari Maqsood

A simplified theoretical model has been proposed to predict optical parameters such as thickness,
thickness irregularity, refractive index, and extinction coefficient from transmission spectra. The proposed formula has been solved for thickness and thickness irregularity in the transparent region, and
then the refractive index is calculated for the entire spectral region by use of the interference fringes
order. The extinction coefficient is then calculated with the exact formula in the transparent region, and
an appropriate model for the refractive index is used to solve for the extinction coefficient in the
absorption region where the interference fringes disappear. The proposed model is tested with the
theoretical predicted data as well as experimental data. The calculation shows that the approximations
used for solving a multiparameter nonlinear equation result in no significant errors. 2002 Optical
Society of America
OCIS codes: 310.0310, 310.6860, 130.5990.

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical Background

Many methods have been proposed in the past 25

years to determine the optical parameters of thin
films from transmission data,112 rather than from
transmission and reflection data. This is due to the
simplicity of calibration of the spectrophotometer,
which yields accurate experimental results. One of
the simplest methods, introduced by Swanepoel,1
used the transmission envelope to solve the equation,
analytically, for the thickness and the refractive index. However, including the thickness variation in
his formula2 required a numerical solution for every
data point. Another interesting method by Cisneros3,4 for a uniform film includes the effect of substrate and solves an equation numerically for the
optical parameters. In this paper we present a simple approach for determining thickness, thickness irregularity, refractive index, and extinction coefficient
for semiconductor thin films.

The expression for transmittance, including the reflection from the second interface of the substrate and
the effect of a finite substrate, which is valid for
transparent as well as weakly absorbing substrates,3
is

A. K. S. Aqili and A. Maqsood tpl.qau@usa.net are with the

Thermal Physics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Quaid-iAzam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Received 17 October 2000; revised manuscript received 9 March
2001.
0003-693502010218-07$15.000
2002 Optical Society of America
218

APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 41, No. 1 1 January 2002

1 T 123U
,
1 R 321U 2

(1)

R 321 r 321r *321 ,

(2)

T 123 n 3n 1t 123t *123 ,

(3)

where r321 and t123 are the amplitude of the electric

field of the wave reflected and transmitted in 321 and
123 directions, respectively illustrated in Fig. 1.
These parameters are given by

t 123

t 12t 23 expi2
,
1 r 12r 23 expi

(4)

r 321

r 32 r 21 expi
.
1 r 32r 21 expi

(5)

where the parameters A1, B1, B2, C1, C2, C3, D1, D2,
D3, U, and are given in Appendix A.
3. Solving for d, , n, and

In the transparent region of the transmission spectra, maximum and minimum transmission occur
at15 m, where m 1, 2, 3, . . . ,
4nd m m.

Fig. 1. Optical parameters and directions of the transmittance

and reflectance, adopted in Eqs. 16.

Here rij and tij are the Fresnel coefficients of the

reflected and the transmitted wave, respectively, in
different regions3,13
r ij

Ni Nj
,
Ni Nj

t ij

2N i
.
Ni Nj

(6)

The complex refractive index is

N i n i ik i ,
where ni is the real part and ki is the imaginary part
extinction coefficient of the complex refractive index
of air n1, k1, film n2, k2, and substrate n3, k3.
is the phase difference of the wave between two interfaces,
4N 2 d 4n 2 d 4k 2 di id,
where d is the film thickness, is the wavelength,
is the absorption coefficient, and is the phase angle.
The modified Fresnel coefficients of reflected and
transmitted waves at a rough film surface,14 12

(11)

For n2 n3, m is even at maximum transmission and

odd at minima. Equation 11 could be rewritten as
n 2m, m4d.

(12)

We can calculate the interference fringes order m by

assuming that the refractive index varies slowly with
the wavelength3,4 in this region so that
m 1 m1 m m m 1 m1 3 m

m1
m1

.
m1 m m m1

(13)

Using the conditions that m is even for maxima and

odd for minima makes it easy to find the value of m.
In some cases, in which it is not easy to decide the
value of m, for example, in thicker films, one could
use a model for variation of the refractive index with
the wavelength1,2,6 as
n n 0 g 2,

(14)

where n0 and g are constants, and Eq. 12 may be

written as
4dn m m m ,

4dn m1 m 1 m1 ,

4dn m1 m 1 m1 .

(15)

Substituting Eq. 14 into Eq. 15 and solving for m

gives

3
2
2
3
3
2
3
2
m1
m1
m1
m1
m1
m
m1
m
3
2
2
3
2
2
2
2
2 .
m1 m m1
m1 m1
m1
m1
m m1
m1 m m1
m
m1
m

(16)

r12 r 12 exp22 2n 12 r 12,

(7)

Then m could be listed for all the spectra where the

interference fringes appear. Knowing the value of
m, we replace the refractive index of the film n2 at
the extremes in Eq. 10 with

r21 r 21 exp22 2n 22 r 21,

(8)

n 2m, m m4d.

t12 t 12 exp 2 n 1 n 2 t 12.

(9)

Substituting Eq. 17 into Eq. 10 and setting k2 0

gives two equations for TM for m even 3 cos 1
and Tm for m odd 3 cos 1. We solve these
two equations by minimizing , where

interface, where the rms height of surface irregularity , are

12

Substitution of Eqs. 29 into Eq. 1 and proceeding with careful and lengthy calculation will result in
an expression for transmittance in the following simplified form,
T

A 1 expd
B 1 exp2d C 1 expd D 1

B 2 exp2d C 2 expd D 2
,
B 2 exp2d C 3 expd D 3

(10)

T m T me 2 T M T Me 2.

(17)

(18)

TMe and Tme are the experimental transmittance

data at maxima and minima, respectively. Solving
Eq. 18 for one consecutive maxima and minimagives the value of d and . Then the refractive index
can be calculated from Eq. 17 for all maxima and
1 January 2002 Vol. 41, No. 1 APPLIED OPTICS

219

Fig. 2. Calculated transmittance curve of -Si:H versus wavelength , along with interference fringes order m.

minima, since this equation is valid for absorption

films for which the value of m could neatly be defined.3 Fitting the values of the refractive index to
some known model gives the values of the refractive
index for the entire spectra.
Knowing the values of d, , and n2, we can solve Eq.
10 for k2 by minimizing 1,
1 Tk T e 2.

(19)

Here Tk is the transmittance formula 10, and Te is

the experimental transmittance value.
4. Simulation for -Si:H

For checking the accuracy of the presented method,

typical values2,6 for n, , d, and , were used to
reproduce the transmission curve with Eq. 10.
The values were n2 2.6 3 1052, Log
8 1.5 1062, d 1000 nm, 15 nm, n3
1.53, and n1 1. Interference fringes m calculated
with relation 13 and listed for all extremes are
shown in Fig. 2. Solving Eq. 18 in the transparent
region as shown in Fig. 3 gave d 999.63 nm and
15.014 nm. The value of d was used to determine
the refractive index by Eq. 17. A plot of n2 versus 12 is shown in Fig. 4. A linear fitting gives
n2 2.60138 3.00859 1052.
From Table 1, which shows the calculated values of
the thickness d and thickness irregularity for
different values of the interference order m in the
transparent and in the low-absorption regions, one
can note that the calculated values of d are within
good accuracy, better than 0.1%, whereas the accuracy of is better in the transparent region.
The calculated values of d, , and n2 are used to
determine the absorption coefficient from Eq. 19
in the transparent and in the low-absorption regions,
whereas in the high-absorption region, where the interference fringes disappear, the fitting parameters
of the refractive index have been used.
Table 2, which gives the comparison of the calculated and the exact values of the absorption coeffi220

APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 41, No. 1 1 January 2002

Fig. 3. Solution of Eq. 18 for d and , a large range and b

small range.

cient for different wavelengths, shows that the

calculated values of have good accuracy in highand low-absorption regions, whereas in the highly
transparent region the accuracy was less because of a
small value of 106108 nm1. However, fitting the calculated values Fig. 5 gave good accuracy,
since the values of in the transparent region have
less weight than in the other regions.

Fig. 4. Linear fitting of the refractive index n versus 12 for

-Si:H.

Table 1. Calculated Values of Thickness d and Thickness Irregularity Obtained by Solution of Eq. 18 for Different Values of Interference
Fringes Orders, for -Si:H

Interference
Orders m

M nm

TM

m nm

Tm

6,7
8,9
10,11
12,13
14,15
16,17
18,19
20,21
22,23

1796
1379
1134
973
859
775
710
659
617

0.90690
0.89955
0.88973
0.87727
0.86191
0.84243
0.81564
0.77156
0.68630

1556
1241
1044
911
814
741
683
636
597

0.54687
0.52515
0.50099
0.47532
0.44872
0.42120
0.39211
0.35808
0.31002

d nm

nm

999.63
999.91
999.631
999.764
999.90
1000.58
1000.60
1000.7
1000.83

15.014
15.029
15.048
15.098
15.190
15.432
15.996
17.3682
20.571

Table 2. Comparison between Calculated and Exact Values of the Absorption Coefficient in Different Regions, for -Si:H

nm
500
505
510
515
520
525
530
535
540
545
550
555
560
565
570

exact
nm1

calculated
nm1

0.01000
0.00762
0.00585
0.00452
0.00353
0.00277
0.00219
0.00174
0.00139
0.00112
9.088 104
7.400 104
6.069 104
4.999 104
4.138 104

0.00999
0.00752
0.00584
0.00452
0.00352
0.00276
0.00220
0.00174
0.00139
0.00110
8.996 104
7.558 104
6.301 104
5.024 104
3.875 104

5. ZnTe Thin Film

The transmission spectra15 of ZnTe thin film, prepared

by two-sourced thermal evaporation on Corning 7059
glass substrate, recorded with a Perkin-Elmer,
Lambda19, UV-VIS-NIR UVvisiblenear-IR spectrophotometer with UV-WinLab software, for range
400 2000 nm is shown in Fig. 6. The interference
order m calculated from relation 13 is also listed
for all extremes in Fig. 6.
The solution of Eq. 18 gives d 745.8 nm and
6.17 nm, where the refractive index of the substrate
n3 was 1.53. The calculated refractive index of the
ZnTe film, using Eq. 17, is shown in Fig. 7.
Many models3,4,8,10,12,16 21 could be used for fitting
of such film, but the single-oscillator model3,4,12,16 19
is found to have the best fitting for the refractiveindex values.

n2 1

2
Em Ed
n 02 1 E m

,
2
2
Em
h 2
Em
h 2

nm

exact
nm1

calculated
nm1

582
595
597
600
617
636
659
683
710
741
776
814
859
911
972
1044
1134

2.682 104
1.783 104
1.670 104
1.468 104
8.714 105
5.109 105
2.844 105
1.643 105
9.454 106
5.390 106
3.090 106
1.835 106
1.078 106
6.410 107
3.890 107
3.516 106
1.467 107

2.695 104
1.878 104
1.592 104
1.319 104
8.841 105
5.138 105
2.901 105
1.473 105
9.262 106
3.297 106
2.902 106
1.105 106
9.538 107
2.759 107
3.659 107
1.878 107
9.973 108

quency, and n0 is the refractive index of an empty

lattice at infinite wave length. The calculated values of the refractive index along with fitting to Eq.
20 is shown in Fig. 7.

(20)

where Em, Ed are the oscillator and dispersive energies, h is the Planck constant, is the photon fre-

Fig. 5. Fitting of calculated absorption coefficient values for

-Si:H.
1 January 2002 Vol. 41, No. 1 APPLIED OPTICS

221

Fig. 6. Experimental transmission spectra of ZnTe film with interference fringes order m.

Fig. 8. Calculated values of the absorption coefficient, with fitting

to Urbach relation.

The values of , calculated by Eq. 19, are fitted to

the Urbach relation,16,22

Eg obtained was 2.234 eV. Figure 10 shows the

transmittance curve reproduced by Eq. 10 by use of
calculated values of d and and the fitting parameters of n2 and , in the Urbach region, along with
experimental transmission data, which have a good
matching.

0 exphE e expa b,

(21)

where 0, Ee, a, and b are constants related to the

characteristic slope of . It is obvious, from Fig. 8
that the Urbach relation has good fitting for 0.003
nm1 30,000 cm1.
Near the absorption edge the optical energy gap
Eg for allowed direct transition could be calculated,
with the well-known dependence22 2 h Eg.
The energy gap is obtained by means of extrapolating
the square of the absorption coefficient 2 versus
incident photon energy h. Figure 9 shows the energy gap with the values of calculated by Eq. 19,
Eg 2.47 eV, and is calculated with the following
approximation2325 near the absorption edge,
T expd.

(22)

Fig. 7. Calculated values of the refractive index of ZnTe film, with

fitting to Eq. 20.
222

APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 41, No. 1 1 January 2002

6. Discussion and Comments

The following points summarize our findings:

1. The formulas include most of the film and substrate parameters, which affect the transmission
spectra, and are given in a simplified form.
2. The values of the interference fringes order
m, for films of thickness below 2000 nm, could
simply be determined with relation 13 by approximation of the resulting value to the closest even integer for maxima and odd integer for minima. For
thicker films where the interference fringes are so
close, relation 16 could be used.
3. The thickness, the thickness irregularity, and
the refractive index of the film with good accuracy

Fig. 9. Plot of 2 versus photon energy h for ZnTe film.

t n 2 n 3 2 k 22,
Y n 22 n 12 k 22,

Z n 22 n 32 k 22,

n 1 n 3 2 k 32n 1 n 3 2 k 32,
n 3 n 11T s 1T s2 1 12,
U 1

1 2
1 4

2
2T s
4T s2

12

where Ts is the transmittance of the substrate and,

for transparent substrate U 1, and k3 0.

Fig. 10. Calculated transmittance curve, with experimental

transmission data, versus wavelength for ZnTe film.

This research was supported in part by the Abdus

Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics
ICTP, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
PAEC, and Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories
KRL.
References

can be calculated by simple solution of one numerical

equation.
4. Calculated values of the absorption coefficient
or the extinction coefficient of the film, in the absorption region, where the interference fringes no longer
exist, depend on the selection of model for the refractive index. With the transparent region it is calculated by use of the values of the refractive index
calculated in this region.
5. Simulation of a tested theoretical model proved
that there is no significant error due to approximation used, consider k 0 in transparent region and m
is exactly integer, even at wavelengths below 1000
nm but not at lower wavelengths where the absorption is too high.
6. Comparing the rms of thickness irregularity
with the value of thickness variation d calculated with the Swanepoel formula, with similar a
approach,15 indicates that d 2, which is due to
the definition of the parameter in both formulas,
whereas the values of the thickness and the refractive index were approximately same.
Appendix A

The values of the parameters in Eq. 10 are as follows:

A 1 216n 1 n 31 n 22 k 22U,
B 1 st sU 2,

B 2 st,

C 1 24n 3 k 22 ZYcos 4k 2n 3 Y Zsin

U 24k 2Z n 3 Ysin 2ZY
4n 3 k 22cos ,
C 2 24n 3 k 22 ZYcos 4k 2n 3 Y Zsin ,
C 3 24n 3 k 22 ZYcos 4k 2n 3 Y Zsin ,
D 1 2u tuU 2,
D 3 2u,

D 2 2u,

u n 1 n 2 2 k 22,

n 2 n 3 2 k 22,

s n 1 n 2 2 k 22,

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