Improved method for determination of optical constants of organic thin films from reflection and transmission measurements

Dispersion-model-free determination of optical constants: application to materials for organic thin film devices

We describe a method to determine the refractive index and extinction coefficient of thin film materials without prior knowledge of the film thickness and without the assumption of a dispersion model. A straightforward back calculation to the optical parameters can be performed starting from simple measurements of reflection and transmission spectra of a 100-250 nm thick supported film. The exact film thickness is found simultaneously by fulfilling the intrinsic demand of continuity of the refractive index as a function of wavelength. If both the layer and the substrate are homogeneous and isotropic media with plane and parallel interfaces, effects like surface roughness, scattering, or thickness inhomogeneities can be neglected. Then, the accuracy of the measurement is approximately 10(-2) and 10(-3) for the refractive index and the extinction coefficient, respectively. The error of the thin film thickness determination is well below 1 nm. Thus this technique is well suited to determine the input parameters for optical simulations of organic thin film devices, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) or organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. We apply the method to the electroluminescent polymer poly(2,5-dioctyl-p-phenylene vinylene) (PDO-PPV) and show its applicability by comparing the measured and calculated reflection and transmission spectra of OLED stacks with up to five layers.

Determination of optical parameters and thickness of weakly absorbing thin films from reflectance and transmittance spectra

A method for determining the optical constants and the thickness of weakly absorbing thin films on substrates is proposed. In this method only the reflectance and transmittance spectra obtained at a single arbitrary angle of incidence are used, provided that the former reveals several interference extrema. The calculation procedure is based on relatively simple relations suitable for the programmed realization and does not call for the prescription of the initial values of the parameters to be determined. The method proposed is fairly accurate and allows one to uniquely solve the inverse problem of spectrophotometry. The optical constants and the thickness of an As(x)Se(y) film formed on a glass substrate have been determined by the proposed method in the visible region of the spectrum.