<title>Usage of polarization for high-accuracy micrometrology sensors</title>

Abstract

The general idea of the presented investigations is to use the polarization of the electromagnetic field in high- resolution optical microscopy to get information about sub- wavelength details of topographical structures. The main application is the localization of vertical edges. For structures in non-magnetic materials, polarization effects are caused by the different boundary conditions for the tangential and normal electric field components. Using rigorous numerical simulations we show that two physical- optics model describe the polarization dependent images of vertical edges and sub-wavelength structures: a boundary diffraction wave originating from the tip of the edge and waveguiding effects, respectively. We report on two experimental approach for polarization usage: a) comparison of interference microscopy images for s- and p-polarization, and b) polarization interferometry. The former is capable of 'synthetical microscopy'. Measurements of well defined structures are compared with rigorous numerical simulations.