Angle resolved Mueller polarimetry with a high numerical aperture and characterization of transparent biaxial samples.

We present a polarimetric instrument suitable for the simultaneous measurement of angle resolved normalized Mueller matrices for polar angles ranging from 0 degrees to 60 degrees and all azimuths. The polarimetric modulation and analysis are performed by means of an optimized polarization state generator and analyzer based on nematic liquid crystals. A high numerical aperture (0.

Application of Mueller polarimetry in conical diffraction for critical dimension measurements in microelectronics.

Fast and efficient metrology tools are required in microelectronics for control of ever-decreasing feature sizes. Optical techniques such as spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and normal incidence reflectometry are widely used for this task. In this work we investigate the potential of spectral Mueller polarimetry in conical diffraction for the characterization of 1D gratings, with particular emphasis on small critical dimensions (CDs).