Characterization of Thickness and Electrical Properties of Ni-Cr Thin Films via Terahertz Time-domain Spectroscopy

Abstract

We utilized terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) to measure the thickness and electrical properties of nickel-chromium (Ni-Cr) films. This technique not only aligns well with traditional meth-ods, such as haze-meter and transmission-densitometer measurements, but it also reveals the electrical properties and thickness of films down to a few tens of nanometers. The complex conductivity of the Ni-Cr thin films was extracted using the Tinkham formula. The experimental values closely aligned with the Drude model, indicating the reliability of our Ni-Cr film’s electrical and optical constants. The thickness of Ni-Cr was estimated using the complex conductivity. These findings emphasize the potential of THz-TDS in quality control of metallic nanofilms, pointing toward an efficient and nondestructive test (NDT) for such analyses. © 2023 Current Optics and Photonics.