We develop a paired circularly polarized heterodyne ellipsometer (PCPHE), in which a heterodyne interferometer based on a two-frequency circularly polarized laser beam is set up. It belongs to an amplitude-sensitive ellipsometer that is able to provide not only a wider dynamic range of polarization modulation frequency but also a higher detection sensitivity than that of a conventional photometric ellipsometer. A real-time and precise measurement of ellipsometric parameters, which demonstrated an accuracy of less than 1 nm on thickness measurement of SiO2 thin film deposited on silicon substrate, can be applied with the PCPHE. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America
