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Problem
It has been discovered that an electron reflectometer and process for performing shape metrology provide electron reflectometry (ER) for measurement or determination of nanoscale dimensions in three dimensions at a surface with small-angle electron reflection. According to Fresnel's law, electrons have a high reflectivity from a surface at an electron energy from 5 kiloelectron volts (keV) to 100 keV at a glancing angle of less than 1° with respect to a plane of the surface. Moreover, the electron reflectometer overcomes reliance by reflective high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) on diffraction spots to determine atomistic surface structure and similar reliance by reflective small-angle electron scattering (RSAES) to determine nanoscale shape morphology.
Invention
An electron reflectometer includes: a sample stage; a source that produces source electrons; a source collimator; and an electron detector that receives collimated reflected electrons.
Features
Advantageously, the electron reflectometer and processes measure nanoscale dimensions from intensity information of specularly reflected and non-specularly reflected electrons.