The present disclosure generally pertains to a polarization imaging system having: an imaging portion having a color channel element of a first color type and a color channel element of a second color type; and a light polarization portion configured to: provide a first light polarization of a first polarization type for the first color type and a second light polarization of the first polarization type for the second color type; and convert a second polarization type into the first polarization type, whereby the second polarization type is detectable in the imaging portion

A plasma lamp for use in a broadband plasma source of an inspection tool is disclosed. The plasma lamp includes a plasma bulb configured to contain a gas and generate a plasma within the plasma bulb. The plasma bulb is formed from a material at least partially transparent to illumination from a pump laser and at least a portion of broadband radiation emitted by the plasma. The plasma bulb includes a conical pocket. The conical pocket is configured to disrupt a plume rising from the plasma.

A method for evaluating a structure is disclosed, the structure including a base material containing at least one kind of metal selected from the group consisting of hydrogen storage metals and hydrogen storage alloys, an intermediate layer provided on the base material and stacked alternately with a first layer containing low work function substances relatively lower in work function than the metal and a second layer containing the metal, and a surface layer provided on the intermediate layer and containing the metal, wherein the method includes measuring a change in polarization between incident light and reflected light by irradiating the surface layer with light, while holding the structure at a predetermined temperature, and comparing a measurement value of the change in polarization with a threshold of a change in polarization of a structure prepared in advance and evaluating a soundness of the structure based on comparison results.

Systems and methods for measuring or inspecting semiconductor structures using broadband infrared radiation are disclosed. The system may include an illumination source comprising a pump source configured to generate pump light and a nonlinear optical (NLO) assembly configured to generate broadband IR radiation in response to the pump light. The system may also include a detector assembly and a set of optics configured to direct the IR radiation onto a sample and direct a portion of the IR radiation reflected and/or scattered from the sample to the detector assembly.

The invention discloses a rapid measurement method for an ultra-thin film optical constant, which includes following steps: S1: using a p-light amplitude reflection coefficient r.sub.p and an s-light amplitude reflection coefficient r.sub.s of an incident light irradiating to an ultra-thin film to be measured to express an amplitude reflection coefficient ratio ρ of the ultra-thin film: $\rho =\frac{r_p}{r_s};$
S2: performing a second-order Taylor expansion to $\rho =\frac{r_p}{r_s}$
at d.sub.f=0 while taking 2πd.sub.f/λ as a variable to obtain a second-order approximation form; S3: performing merging, simplifying and substituting processing to the second-order approximation form for transforming the same into a one-variable quartic equation; S4: solving the one-variable quartic equation to obtain a plurality of solutions of the optical constant of the ultra-thin film, and obtaining a correct solution through conditional judgment, so as to achieve the rapid measurement for the ultra-thin film optical constant.

A measurement system is disclosed. A measurement system includes an illumination module, a mirror module, a stage, and a detector. The illumination module includes a light source, an optical fiber, a collimating mirror, a polarization state generator, a beam control mirror, and a relay mirror. The mirror module includes a first beam splitter and a reflective objective mirror. The beam control mirror is movable to relay light received from the polarization state generator to various positions on the relay mirror.

Methods and systems for performing optical measurements of semiconductor structures while modulating both an electric field within one or more structures under measurement and the measurement light employed to measure the one or more structures are presented herein. Spectroscopic ellipsometry, spectroscopic reflectometry, and angle resolved spectroscopic reflectometry measurements are enhanced by modulation of the electric field of the structures under measurement. The modulation of the electric field changes the dielectric function of the materials under measurement. Measurements are performed with an enriched data set including measurement signals collected from one or more structures under time varying optical and electric field conditions. This reduces parameter correlation among floating measurement parameters and improves measurement accuracy. Differences between frequencies of optical modulation and electric field modulation increase the contrast within the one or more structures under measurement, which, in turn, increases measurement accuracy with reduced computational effort.

A method for determining an optical constant of a material includes: acquiring ellipsometric parameters; obtaining a optical constant of the material corresponding to the ellipsometric parameters by a machine learning model; the machine learning model including a mapping relationship between the ellipsometric parameters and the material optical constant of the material corresponding to the ellipsometric parameters. The method uses the machine learning model to implement an automatic fitting of ellipsometric parameters. In the method, the optical constant of the material is calculated by a machine learning model, which no longer depends on the experiences of the experimenters, thereby reducing requirements for the operator, accelerating the fitting of the data curve when calculating the optical constants of the material and improving the operation efficiency.

The disclosure relates to a method for measuring a dielectric tensor of a material. Firstly, a partial conversion matrix T.sub.p and a transmission matrix T.sub.t are determined by a predetermined initial value ε(E) of the dielectric tensor of the material to be measured, thereby obtaining a transfer matrix of an electromagnetic wave on a surface of the material to be measured by the partial conversion matrix T.sub.p, the transmission matrix T.sub.t, and an incident matrix T.sub.i, a theoretical Mueller matrix spectrum MM.sub.Cal(E) of the material to be measured is determined by the transfer matrix T.sub.m. A fitting analysis is performed on the theoretical Mueller matrix spectrum MM.sub.Cal(E) and a measured Mueller matrix spectrum MM.sub.Exp(E) of the material to be measured to obtain the dielectric tensor of the material to be measured.

A method and device of thin film spectroellipsometric imaging are disclosed. The device comprises an illuminator to direct light through a polarization generator system toward an extended area of a sample; an imaging system to form images; a detection system to record in a plurality of spectral channels; a computer to display and analyze the recorded images; and at least one reference phantom with known optical properties to replace the sample for calibration. The method comprises directing light from an illuminator through a polarization generator system toward an extended area of a sample having a geometrical shape; forming images with an imaging system; adjusting a polarization generator system and a polarization analyzer system to obtain a series of polarimetric setups; recording the images with a detection system in a plurality of spectral channels; replacing the sample with at least one reference phantom; and analyzing the recorded images with a computer.