Description of a single modular optical setup for ellipsometry, surface plasmons, waveguide modes, and their corresponding imaging techniques including Brewster angle microscopy

Abstract

A versatile modular setup is described which incorporates ellipsometry, surface plasmon spectroscopy, waveguide modes, their corresponding imaging techniques and Brewster angle microscopy in a single instrument. The important design criteria are discussed with special emphasis given to the requirements imposed by imaging under an oblique angle of incidence. Several experimental examples demonstrate the power of the instrument. Imaging nullellipsometry of a patterned monolayer on a highly reflecting support demonstrates a lateral resolution of approximately 1 μm and an accuracy in the thickness determination in the sub-nm region. The localization of the evanescent field of a surface plasmon was exploited to characterize adsorption layers in turbid and thus highly scattering solutions. An example of how an anisotropic sample can be characterized with the aid of waveguide modes is provided.