Optical properties of Mg, from UV to IR, using ellipsometry and reflectometry

Magnesium films have been traditionally used for UV filters. However, scarce information has been reported on its optical properties [1-3] and the problems it presents in the production of the films. Being a Drude material, magnesium is a suitable material for studying the photon-surface plasmon interaction by attenuated total reflectance, but the dielectric function is poorly known for the IR-visible region. In this paper we present our values for the optical properties of a Mg thin film obtained from ellipsometric and absolute reflectance measurements. The dielectric function is estimated using Drude modeling, extending the previously reported data into the infrared.