Detailed Description
The invention discloses a reflection type near-field optical polarization spectrometer, which comprises: the device comprises an incident light generation module, a probe scanning microscopic module and an emergent light detection module. The incident light generation module comprises at least one light source, at least one polarization generation device and at least two curved surface reflection elements; the emergent light detection module comprises at least one detector, at least one polarization detection device and at least two curved surface reflecting elements. The incident light generation module emits detection light with different polarization states, the detection light is incident on a probe needle point of the probe scanning microscopic module, the detection light interacts with a micro-nano space structure formed by the probe needle point and the surface of a sample, the polarization state changes, then scattered light/transmitted light/reflected light of the light beam is collected by the emergent light detection module, change information generated by the polarization state in the interaction is obtained through demodulation of the polarization state of the emergent light, and information such as an optical constant, film thickness and the like of the sample to be detected can be obtained through inversion calculation of the information.
The reflective near-field optical polarization spectrometer of the invention utilizes the curved surface reflecting element to shape and focus the light beam and change the propagation direction of the light beam. The reflecting element can be coated to realize high reflectivity in a wider spectral band, the problem of chromatic aberration is avoided, and the problem that light with different wavelengths is different in focusing position due to chromatic aberration caused by the use of a lens element can be avoided. And a polarization maintaining structure is used for ensuring that the polarization state of the probe light modulated by the polarizing device and the compensating device is kept unchanged when the probe light reaches the probe after being reflected by the reflecting element. The near-field optical microscopy technology is combined with a polarization spectrometer, the 10 nm-level transverse spatial resolution can be realized, and the method has great significance for realizing the accurate measurement of the dimensions of semiconductor key devices.
In order that the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent, the present invention will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with the following specific embodiments.
The probe scanning microscope module generally comprises a light source (monochromatic or broad spectrum), a knock-mode atomic force microscope, a detection light collection module, a sample stage and a photoelectric detector. The core component of the probe scanning microscopic module is a probe, and when the material morphology is obtained, the local optical property (about 10 nm) with sub-wavelength resolution can be obtained by utilizing the electric field enhancement and the electric field local area generated by the 'lightning rod effect' of the probe tip. Unlike traditional optical detection, which only involves light and material in interaction, the probe in the probe scanning microscopic module has strong electromagnetic interaction with the material and affects the signal light focused on the probe. Thus, it is possible to provideA probe-sample coupling model must be constructed to reduce the near-field interaction, with the simplest model being a dipole model. In this model the probe polarisation induced by the incident optical electric field is replaced by a dipole, the tip dipole in turn inducing polarisation of the material, which in turn affects the susceptibility of the tip, and so on iteratively. Electric field E scattered by the tipsc=σnf·Einc∝αeff·Einc,σnfIs the near field scattering coefficient, alphaeffIs to take into account the effective polarizability of the probe after interaction with the material, EincIs the incident electric field. When incident electric field EincPerpendicular to the sample surface, the effective polarizability is expressed as:
when incident electric field EincParallel to the sample surface, the effective polarizability is expressed as:
in both equations, r is the probe tip radius and d is the tip-sample spacing. Alpha is alpha
eff⊥And alpha
eff||The molecule in the expression (1) represents the polarizability of the probe, wherein
Is an inherent property of the probe; the denominator is the interaction of the probe and the sample, wherein
It is determined only by the dielectric coefficient of the material and represents the "near field reflection coefficient" of the sample to the probe dipole. The dielectric properties of the material can thus be deduced from the scattered electric field. Other models that describe near-field interactions such as monopole models and "lightning rod" models can also accurately reverse the dielectric constant of the material.
The reflectance of the sample can be expressed by jones matrix as:
we refer to the state of polarization with the polarization direction parallel to the plane of incidence as p-polarization and the state of polarization with the polarization direction perpendicular to the plane of incidence as s-polarization. If the incident polarization state of the probe beam is p polarization and the polarization state of the emergent beam after the interaction with the probe is s polarization, the absolute reflectivity is r
psIt is shown that,
the same principle is that
pp、r
spAnd r
ss. The Jones matrix elements vary with the azimuth angle of the sample surface probe beam incident plane and the incident angle within the incident plane. Typically, the uniform film is composed of a non-birefringent material, and r is the angle of incidence at any azimuth angle
ps=r
sp=0。
(1) Absolute reflectance measurements. Near-field optical polarization spectrometer capable of measuring r in sample Jones matrixpp、rps、rspAnd rss. To measure the reflectance of a sample, the following should be done:
a. measuring dark value I of spectrometerd;
b. Measuring the reflectivity of a reference sample, e.g. a bare silicon wafer, and obtaining a spectral value Ir;
c. Measuring the sample and obtaining a value I;
thus, the reflectance of the sample to be measured is:
where R (ref) is the absolute reflectivity of the reference sample. R (ref) can be obtained from other measurements or calculated from characteristics of a reference sample, typically the reflectivity of bare silicon.
As shown in fig. 1, actual measurementThe time-measuring adjustment polarization generating device 2 and the polarization detecting device 6 respectively correspond to the polarization direction p corresponding to the polarization state in the sample incidence plane&p、p&s、s&p and s&s the absolute reflectance of the sample in four cases, i.e. rpp、rps、rspAnd rss. When r isps=rspWhen r is 0, only the polarization generating device 2 or the polarization detecting device 6 is required to obtain r by measurementppAnd rss。
(2) Elliptical polarization measurement method: as shown in FIG. 1, the near-field optical polarization spectrometer of the present invention is equivalent to an ellipsometer with a structure of a polarization generating device 2-a sample 4-a polarization detecting device 6 (PSA). The polarization detection device 6 can be fixed by rotating the polarization generation device 2, or the polarization detection device 6 fixes the polarization generation device 2, or the polarization generation device 2 and the polarization detection device 6 rotate according to a certain frequency ratio, Fourier coefficients are obtained by calculation, and then a measurement sample is calculated by comparison with a numerical simulation result and numerical regression. The principle formula illustrated, below, is only briefly described in the case of a rotating polarization detection device 6 (RAE):
Lout=AR(A)JsR(-P)PLin,
namely:
it can be derived that:
EA=(ρpp+ρpstanP)cos(A)+(ρsp+tanP)sinA,
detected light intensity:
I=|EA|2=I0(1+αcos2A+βsin2A)。
wherein alpha and beta are Fourier coefficients of the light intensity I, and experimental values can be obtained through calculation. Corresponding to the expression as
When r isps=rsp0, i.e. pps=ρspWhen 0, the calculation formula of the common isotropic film sample can be obtained:
wherein tan ψ is rpp、rssAmplitude of the ratio, Δ being rpp、rssThe phase difference of the ratio.
By means of an elliptical polarization measurement method, spectral lines of alpha and beta Fourier coefficients can be calculated, and the spectral lines contain elements rho after being normalized with a Jones matrixpp、ρps、ρspAre directly related. By calculating spectral lines and curve regression fits through mathematical models, the optical constants of the sample material, the film thickness, and/or the Critical Dimension (CD) or three-dimensional topography of the sample used to analyze the periodic structure can be calculated.
In general, the spot size focused on the probe tip is about 100 μm2And the probe tip has a size of 10-30 nm. Near field focusing efficiency of ηN=PN/PIIn which P isIIs the incident light power, PNIs the power converted into the local field at the probe tip, and is reported to indicate eta, respectivelyNThe values of (a) are only 0.0003 and 0.000001. Therefore, most of the scattered light is background signal from the probe arm and the sample surface, so subtracting the background to extract the near-field signal is the key to the application of the probe scanning microscopy module. A lock-in amplifier is an amplifier that can extract a signal at a known carrier frequency from an extreme noise environment. Operation dependence of lock-in amplifierIn the orthogonality of the sine functions, when a frequency is f1Multiplication of a function by another frequency unequal to f1Has a frequency of f2The result of their integration over time over the period of the two functions is 0. And if f1And f2Equal and in phase, the magnitude of the integral of the product of the two functions is equal to half of their amplitude product.
The probe scanning microscopic module adopting the knocking mode can generate a modulation signal with stable frequency in a frequency range of 10k Hz-50k Hz in a resonant mode, the modulation signal is used as a reference signal and input into the phase-locked amplifier, and the detection device converts the collected detection light into an input signal and inputs the input signal into the phase-locked amplifier. The lock-in amplifier multiplies the input signal by the reference signal and then integrates over a specified time period (typically a few milliseconds to a few seconds) to produce a dc signal, while other signal components at frequencies different from the reference signal will decay to 0. This is because the phase-locked amplifier can also be used as a phase-sensitive detector because the output phase signal is attenuated at the same position as the frequency of the reference signal due to the orthogonality of the sine function and the cosine function of the same frequency.
For an input signal Uin(t), the output signal of the dc can be calculated for an analog lock-in amplifier as:
wherein the phase position
Is a phase factor that can be adjusted by the lock-in amplifier and is typically set to 0. If the averaging time is long enough, many times larger than the period of the signal, all unwanted noise is suppressed and the output becomes:
in the formula VsigIs the input amplitude of the signal at the reference frequency and theta is the signal difference between the reference signal and the input signal.
Many applications of lock-in amplifiers only require amplitude considerations and not phase considerations, such as single phase lock-in amplifiers, which typically require manual adjustment so that the phase difference becomes 0. A more powerful dual-phase lock-in amplifier comprises another multiplier and an integrator, and phase signals of two channels have a phase difference of 90 degrees. The lock-in amplifier has two outputs, i.e. the in-phase component X ═ Vsigcos θ and quadrature component Y ═ Vsigsin θ. At the same time, the amplitude and phase information of the input signal can be calculated:
next, a near-field optical polarization spectrometer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First embodiment
A reflective near-field optical polarization spectrometer according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 1, the reflective near-field optical polarization spectrometer includes an incident light generation module (a light source 1, a first curved surface reflection element 2, a polarization generation device 3, a first phase compensation device 4, and a second curved surface reflection element 5), a probe scanning microscopy module 6, a sample 7, and an emergent light detection module (a third curved surface reflection element 8, a second phase compensation device 9, a polarization detection device 10, a fourth curved surface reflection element 11, and a detection device 12). The polarization generating device 3, the first phase compensating device 4, the second phase compensating device 9 and the polarization detecting device 10 are used or not according to actual needs, and structural forms such as PSA (polarization generating device 3-sample 7-polarization detecting device 10), PSCA (polarization generating device 3-sample 7-second phase compensating device 9-polarization detecting device 10), PCSA (polarization generating device 3-first phase compensating device 4-sample 7-polarization detecting device 10), PCSCA (polarization generating device 3-first phase compensating device 4-sample 7-second phase compensating device 9-polarization detecting device 10) and the like can be formed; the polarization generating device 3, the first phase compensating device 4, the second phase compensating device 9 and the polarization detecting device 10 can also determine whether to rotate according to actual needs, and the structure forms of R.P. (rotating the polarization generating device 3), R.A. (rotating the polarization detecting device 10), R.C. (rotating the first phase compensating device 4 or the second phase compensating device 9), multi-device rotation according to a certain frequency ratio and the like are formed.
The light source 1 is arranged at the focal position of the first curved surface reflecting element 2, and light beams emitted by the light source 1 are emitted as parallel light beams after being incident on the first curved surface reflecting element 2. The parallel light beams are modulated into detection light with different polarization states by a polarization generating device 3 and a first phase compensation device 4, the detection light is focused on a probe tip of a probe scanning microscopic module 6 through a second curved surface reflecting element 5, the probe tip and a sample 7 to be detected form a micro-nano space structure, the detection light interacts with the micro-nano space structure, the polarization state changes, then light beams scattered to a certain direction by a probe are collected by a third curved surface reflecting element 8 and are emitted into parallel light beams, and the parallel light beams are demodulated by a second phase compensation device 9 and a polarization detection device 10 and then are focused on a detection device 12 through a fourth curved surface reflecting element 11.
The electric platform module 13 can adjust X, Y, Z, Theta for carrying the sample 7, and can control the movement of the electric platform module 13 through the program instruction to realize X, Y, Theta-direction two-dimensional scanning, thereby acquiring the related information of the whole measured sample surface.
The probe tip vibrates up and down at a certain modulation frequency, the vibration signal is used as a reference signal and input into the lock-in amplifier 14, the detection device 12 collects a detection light signal and converts the detection light signal into an input signal and inputs into the lock-in amplifier 14, the lock-in amplifier 14 demodulates the vibration frequency of the probe tip to obtain the change information generated by the polarization state in the interaction, and then the information is subjected to inversion calculation to obtain the information such as the optical constant, the film thickness and the like of the detected sample 7.
The first curved surface reflecting element 2 and the second curved surface reflecting element 5 have the same reflecting material and coating structure, and meet the conditions that the incident angle of the main beam is the same and is between 10 degrees and 45 degrees and two incident planes are perpendicular to each other, so that the polarization state of the detection light modulated by the polarization generating device 3 and the first phase compensation device 4 can be kept unchanged when the detection light reaches the probe after being reflected by the reflecting elements. Similarly to the third curved reflective element 8 and the fourth curved reflective element 11. Specific principle description reference may be made to the patent "li national light, liu billo, adig keni europe, maje, seas, oblique incidence broadband polarization spectrometer and optical measurement system [ P ] CN102297721A,2011-12-28 ].
The spectrum of the light source 1 may be in the vacuum ultraviolet to terahertz range. The light source 1 may be a broad spectrum light source such as a xenon lamp, a deuterium lamp, a tungsten lamp, a halogen lamp, a mercury lamp, a composite broadband light source including a deuterium lamp and a tungsten lamp, a composite broadband light source including a tungsten lamp and a halogen lamp, a composite broadband light source including a mercury lamp and a xenon lamp, a composite broadband light source including a deuterium tungsten halogen, or the like; or a single-wavelength light source with adjustable wavelength, such as a helium-neon laser, a carbon dioxide laser, a solid laser, a semiconductor laser, a fiber laser and the like.
The light beam is emitted by the incident light generation module and hits on the probe tip of the probe scanning microscopic module 6, and the included angle between the incident light beam and the probe is larger than 30 degrees and smaller than 90 degrees. The emergent light detection module can collect scattered light or reflected light emitted after passing through the probe tip, the collected emergent angle can be in the range of 0-180 degrees, and the azimuth angle can be in the range of 0-360 degrees.
The polarization generating device 3 and the polarization detecting device 10 comprise at least one polarizing element, which may be a thin film polarizer, a granthon prism polarizer, a rochon prism polarizer, a grantaylor prism polarizer, or a grantre laser polarizer, etc.
The first phase compensation device 4 and the second phase compensation device 9 comprise at least one phase compensation element which may be a half wave plate, a quarter wave plate, a soliry-babinet compensator, a photoelastic modulator, an automatic phase retarder, etc.
The first curved surface reflecting element 2, the second curved surface reflecting element 5, the third curved surface reflecting element 8 and the fourth curved surface reflecting element 11 can be off-axis paraboloid reflecting elements or toroidal reflecting elements and the like.
The detector 12 may be a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), a deep ultraviolet photodiode, an indium gallium arsenic photodiode, a mercury cadmium telluride infrared detector, a quadrant photodiode, a photodiode array (PDA) spectrometer, or the like.
The reflection near-field optical polarization spectrometer may further include at least one diaphragm, located between the polarization generating device 3 and the polarization detecting device 10, for preventing e light generated after passing through the polarization generating device 3 from being incident to the surface of the sample or preventing reflected light thereof from being incident to the polarization detecting device 10 after being reflected.
The reflection type near-field optical polarization spectrometer can further comprise an analysis unit, and the analysis unit is used for calculating information such as optical constants, film thickness and anisotropic characteristics of a measured sample.
Second embodiment
A reflective near-field optical polarization spectrometer according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig. 2. As shown in fig. 2, the reflective near-field optical polarization spectrometer includes an incident light generation module (a light source 1, a first curved surface reflection element 2, a polarization generation device 3, a first phase compensation device 4, and a second curved surface reflection element 5), a probe scanning microscopy module 6, a sample 7, and an emergent light detection module (a second curved surface reflection element 5, a beam splitting element 15, a plane reflection element 16, a second phase compensation device 9, a polarization detection device 10, a fourth curved surface reflection element 11, and a detection device 12). The polarization generating device 3, the first phase compensating device 4, the second phase compensating device 9 and the polarization detecting device 10 are used or not according to actual needs, and structural forms such as PSA (polarization generating device 3-sample 7-polarization detecting device 10), PSCA (polarization generating device 3-sample 7-second phase compensating device 9-polarization detecting device 10), PCSA (polarization generating device 3-first phase compensating device 4-sample 7-polarization detecting device 10), PCSCA (polarization generating device 3-first phase compensating device 4-sample 7-second phase compensating device 9-polarization detecting device 10) and the like can be formed; the polarization generating device 3, the first phase compensating device 4, the second phase compensating device 9 and the polarization detecting device 10 can also determine whether to rotate according to actual needs, and the structure forms of R.P. (rotating the polarization generating device 3), R.A. (rotating the polarization detecting device 10), R.C. (rotating the first phase compensating device 4 or the second phase compensating device 9), multi-device rotation according to a certain frequency ratio and the like are formed.
The light source 1 is arranged at the focal position of the first curved surface reflecting element 2, and light beams emitted by the light source 1 are emitted as parallel light beams after being incident on the first curved surface reflecting element 2. The parallel light beams are modulated into detection light with different polarization states by the polarization generating device 3 and the first phase compensation device 4, the detection light penetrates through the beam splitting element 15, and is focused onto a probe needle point of the probe scanning microscopic module 6 by the second curved surface reflection element 5, the detection light interacts with a micro-nano space structure formed by the probe needle point and a detected sample 7, the polarization state changes, then light beams returning along the original incident direction after being scattered by the probe are collected by the second curved surface reflection element 5 and are emitted into parallel light beams, the parallel light beams are reflected by the beam splitting element 15 and are reflected by the plane reflection element 16, and the parallel light beams are focused onto the detection device 12 by the fourth curved surface reflection element 11 after being demodulated by the second phase compensation device 9 and the polarization detection device 10.
The electric platform module 13 can adjust X, Y, Z, Theta for carrying the sample 7, and can control the movement of the electric platform module 13 through the program instruction to realize X, Y, Theta-direction two-dimensional scanning, thereby acquiring the related information of the whole measured sample surface.
The probe tip vibrates up and down at a certain modulation frequency, the vibration signal is used as a reference signal and input into the lock-in amplifier 14, the detection device 12 collects a detection light signal and converts the detection light signal into an input signal and inputs into the lock-in amplifier 14, the lock-in amplifier 14 demodulates the vibration frequency of the probe tip to obtain the change information generated by the polarization state in the interaction, and then the information is subjected to inversion calculation to obtain the information such as the optical constant, the film thickness and the like of the detected sample 7.
The same as the first embodiment, the first curved surface reflective element 2 and the second curved surface reflective element 5 have the same reflective material and coating structure, and satisfy the condition that the incident angle of the main beam is the same and is between 10 ° and 45 ° and the two incident planes are perpendicular to each other, which can ensure that the polarization state of the probe light modulated by the polarization generating device 3 and the first phase compensating device 4 remains unchanged when the probe light reaches the probe after being reflected by the reflective element. Similarly to the second curved reflective element 5, the beam splitting element 15, the reflective element 16 and the fourth curved reflective element 11. Specific principle description reference may be made to the patents "li national light, liu billo, adig keni europe, ma iron, severe seas, oblique incidence broadband polarization spectrometer and optical measurement system [ P ] CN102297721A,2011-12-28 ].
The spectrum of the light source 1 may be in the vacuum ultraviolet to terahertz range. The light source 1 may be a broad spectrum light source such as a xenon lamp, a deuterium lamp, a tungsten lamp, a halogen lamp, a mercury lamp, a composite broadband light source including a deuterium lamp and a tungsten lamp, a composite broadband light source including a tungsten lamp and a halogen lamp, a composite broadband light source including a mercury lamp and a xenon lamp, a composite broadband light source including a deuterium tungsten halogen, or the like; or a single-wavelength light source with adjustable wavelength, such as a helium-neon laser, a carbon dioxide laser, a solid laser, a semiconductor laser, a fiber laser and the like.
The light beam is emitted by the incident light generation module and hits on the probe tip of the probe scanning microscopic module 6, and the included angle between the incident light beam and the probe is larger than 30 degrees and smaller than 90 degrees.
The polarization generating device 3 and the polarization detecting device 10 comprise at least one polarizing element, which may be a thin film polarizer, a granthon prism polarizer, a rochon prism polarizer, a grantaylor prism polarizer, or a grantre laser polarizer, etc.
The first phase compensation device 4 and the second phase compensation device 9 comprise at least one phase compensation element which may be a half wave plate, a quarter wave plate, a soliry-babinet compensator, a photoelastic modulator, an automatic phase retarder, etc.
The first curved surface reflecting element 2, the second curved surface reflecting element 5 and the fourth curved surface reflecting element 11 can be off-axis paraboloid reflecting elements or toroidal reflecting elements, etc.
The beam splitting element 15 may be a plate beam splitter, a cube beam splitter, a pellicle beam splitter, or the like.
The detector 12 may be a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), a deep ultraviolet photodiode, an indium gallium arsenic photodiode, a mercury cadmium telluride infrared detector, a quadrant photodiode, a photodiode array (PDA) spectrometer, or the like.
The near-field optical polarization spectrometer may further include at least one diaphragm, located between the polarization generating device 3 and the polarization detecting device 10, for preventing e light generated after passing through the polarization generating device 3 from being incident on the surface of the sample or reflected light thereof from being incident on the polarization detecting device 10.
The near-field optical polarization spectrometer can further comprise an analysis unit, and the analysis unit is used for calculating information such as optical constants, film thickness and anisotropic characteristics of a measured sample.
The invention combines the polarization spectrometer technology with the near-field optical microscopy technology, utilizes the curved surface reflecting element, invents a reflective near-field optical polarization spectrometer, can break through the optical diffraction limit limiting the resolution ratio of the traditional polarization spectrometer, realizes the non-contact and nondestructive accurate measurement of the nanometer scale of semiconductor key devices, avoids the problem that light with different wavelengths is out of focus due to chromatic aberration caused by using a lens element, and ensures that the polarization state of the detection light modulated by the polarization device and the compensating device is kept unchanged when the detection light reaches the probe after being reflected by the reflecting element through the polarization maintaining structure.
The above-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.