Abstract

Polymer films thickness is one of the critical factors for the operation performance of the integrated optical devices (IODs) based on polymer planar waveguides and it is difficult to real-time determine it during corresponding fabrication process. A variety of approaches, which have been presented before, are either of less precision or more contamination of the film surfaces. In this paper a practical method, in which the absorbance of the polymer film using Lanbert law to determine the thickness of spin-coated polymer films, was presented. Compared with other methods, it can get an acceptable accuracy without using specialized and expensive instruments, and the surface of the film with not be contaminated during the measurement process. The experimental results compared with other methods were listed and depicted in confirming our method's availability. The factors that may have influence on the employment of our method were analyzed and discussed.

© 2005 Chinese Optics Letters

Simultaneous determination of thickness and optical constants of polymer thin film by analyzing transmittance

Changsoo Jung and Bum Ku Rhee
Appl. Opt. 41(19) 3861-3865 (2002)

Determination of the electrooptic coefficient of a poled polymer film

Jay S. Schildkraut
Appl. Opt. 29(19) 2839-2841 (1990)

Simple method for determining the gain coefficient of a photorefractive polymer film

Won-Jae Joo and Nakjoong Kim
Opt. Lett. 28(14) 1254-1256 (2003)

Thickness and uniformity of fluorocarbon polymer film dynamically coated inside silver hollow glass waveguides

You Wang, Akihito Hongo, Yuji Kato, Takehiro Shimomura, Daisuke Miura, and Mitsunobu Miyagi
Appl. Opt. 36(13) 2886-2892 (1997)

Determination of refractive index and thickness of thick transparent films by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry: application to benzocyclobutene films

Shuwen Guo, Göran Gustafsson, Olle Jonny Hagel, and Hans Arwin
Appl. Opt. 35(10) 1693-1699 (1996)