Spectrophotometric Characterization of Thin Copper and Gold Films Prepared by Electron Beam Evaporation: Thickness Dependence of the Drude Damping Parameter

Abstract

Copper and gold films with thicknesses between approximately 10 and 60 nm have been prepared by electron beam evaporation and characterized by spectrophotometry from the near infrared up to the near ultraviolet spectral regions. From near normal incidence transmission and reflection spectra, dispersion of optical constants have been determined by means of spectra fits utilizing a merger of the Drude model and the beta-distributed oscillator model. All spectra could be fitted in the full spectral region with a total of seven dispersion parameters. The obtained Drude damping parameters shows a clear trend to increase with decreasing film thickness. This behavior is discussed in the context of additional non-optical characterization results and turned out to be consistent with a simple mean-free path theory.