DETERMINATION OF DIELECTRIC PERMITTIVITY AND THICKNESS OF A METAL LAYER FROM A SURFACE-PLASMON RESONANCE EXPERIMENT

In this paper we present a fast method for the determination of dielectric permittivity ϵ = —ϵr + iϵi,- and thickness d of metal layers from surface plasmon resonance reflection curves. The method is an iteration process using starting parameters derived directly from a reflection curve. The method is tested with simulations and is applied to experimental results. Accuracies reached for silver layers between 25-100 nm and gold layers between 40-75 nm are better than: ϵr ±1%; ϵi- ±13% and d ±8%. © 1990 Optical Society of America.