| Author(s): |
David G. Seiler; Stefan Zollner; Alain C. Diebold; Paul Amirtharaj; |
| Title: |
Optical Properties of Semiconductors |
| Published: |
October 19, 2009 |
| Abstract: |
Rapid advances in semiconductor manufacturing and associated technologies have increased the need for optical characterization techniques for materials analysis and in-situ monitoring/control applications. Optical measurements have many unique and attractive features for studying and characterizing semiconductor properties: (1) they are contactless, nondestructive, and compatible with any transparent ambient including high-vacuum environments; (2) they are capable of remote sensing, and hence are useful for in-situ analysis on growth and processing systems; (3) the high lateral resolution inherent in optical systems may be harnessed to obtain spatial maps of important properties of the semiconductor wafers or devices; (4) combined with the submonolayer sensitivity of a technique such as ellipsometry, optical measurements lead to unsurpassed analytical details; (5) the resolution in time obtainable using short laser pulses allows ultrafast phenomena to be investigated; (6) the use of multichannel detection and high-speed computers can be harnessed for extremely rapid data acquisition and reduction which is crucial for real-time monitoring applications such as in in-situ sensing; (7) they provide information that complements transport analyses of impurity or defect and electrical behavior; (8) they possess the ability to provide long-range, crystal-like properties and hence support and complement chemical and elemental analyses; and (9) finally, most optical techniques are “table-top” procedures that can be implemented by semiconductor device manufacturers at a reasonable cost. All optical measurements of semiconductors rely on a fundamental understanding of their optical properties. In this chapter, a broad overview of the optical properties of semiconductors is given, along with numerous specific examples. |
| Citation: |
Handbook of Optics |
| Publisher: |
McGraw Hill, New York, NY |
| Pages: |
pp. 5.1 - 5.91 |
| Keywords: |
optical; semiconductor; lattice; carrier; magneto-optical; ellipsometry |
| Research Areas: |
Semiconductors |
| PDF version: |
 Click here to retrieve PDF version of paper (148MB) |
