LAUSR

Abstract In this paper epitaxial ZnSe thin films prepared by molecular beam epitaxy onto GaAs single crystal substrates exhibiting two defects, i.e. boundary roughness and thickness non-uniformity, are optically characterized using a combination of spectroscopic ellipsometry and near-normal spectroscopic reflectometry. The influence of boundary roughness is included into optical quantity formulae by the combination of the scalar diffraction theory and Rayleigh–Rice theory. Very thin overalyers modelled by rough thin films with identically rough boundaries are taken into account on the upper boundaries of the ZnSe thin films. Two approximations are used to express the local reflection coefficient of the rough ZnSe thin films covered with the overlayers within combination of both the theories. Thickness non-uniformity is incorporated by means of averaging the elements of the unnormalized Mueller matrices. The universal dispersion model of the optical constants of the ZnSe thin films based on parametrization of the joint density of electronic states is used. The spectral dependencies of the optical constants of the ZnSe thin films are determined within the wide spectral range (0.12–8.7 eV). Moreover, the mean thickness of the ZnSe thin films and thickness of overlayers are determined together with the other structural parameters characterizing the defects. The values of roughness parameters, determined by the optical method, are verified by a comparison with results achieved by atomic force microscopy. It is also shown that the approximations of the local reflection coefficient presented are usable for processing the experimental data.