Vol. 31, Issue 1, pp. 93-101 (2001)

Abstract

The effect of thickness variation and the surface roughness of amorphous Zn₃₂P₆₈ thin films has been investigated by the interference spectroscopy of the optical transmittance and reflectance, as well as by the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The analysis of the optical data allowed determination of the standard deviation of the thin film thickness by taking into account the Gaussian distribution of the change in phase of radiation traversing a thin film. It appears that the value of the standard deviation of the film thickness determined from the optical interference spectroscopy ( σ_w ~=26 nm) is comparable with the value of the mean surface roughness (R_a ~=19 nm) evaluated from the AFM studies.