Abstract

In internal reflection spectroscopy effective thickness is defined as the thickness of material required to give a spectrum of the same contrast in a transmission measurement as that obtained via internal reflection. Simple expressions for effective thickness are given for bulk materials and for thin films which are useful as guide lines in determining the optimum conditions required to record internal reflection spectra. Depending on angle of incidence and index of refraction, the effective thickness for bulk materials may be much greater or much less than the wavelength of light. Similarly for thin films the effective thickness may be much greater or much less than the actual thickness.

© 1966 Optical Society of America

Internal Reflection Spectroscopy: Validity of Effective Thickness Equations

N. J. Harrick and A. I. Carlson
Appl. Opt. 10(1) 19-23 (1971)

Optical Properties of Evaporated Films of Chromium and Copper

G. Henderson and C. Weaver
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 56(11) 1551-1559 (1966)

Thin-film absorption coefficients by attenuated-total-reflection spectroscopy

R. T. Holm and E. D. Palik
Appl. Opt. 17(3) 394-403 (1978)

Absorption effects on total-internal-reflection fluorescence spectroscopy

Minoru Toriumi, Masatoshi Yanagimachi, and Hiroshi Masuhara
Appl. Opt. 31(30) 6376-6382 (1992)

Simultaneous determination of the optical constants and thickness of very thin films by using soft-x-ray reflectance measurements

Jianlin Cao, Mihiro Yanagihara, Masaki Yamamoto, Yoshinori Goto, and Takeshi Namioka
Appl. Opt. 33(10) 2013-2017 (1994)