Imaging Ellipsometer for Soft Materials at Surfaces and Interfaces

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The main focus of our research group is soft-materials at surfaces and interfaces. The physics of soft materials is distinct from hard matter as the weaker intermolecular bonds result in a large response to external stresses. One surprising aspect of these materials is that thin films or coatings do not necessarily exhibit the same properties as bulk materials. In order to further our understanding of these systems we request an imaging ellipsometer (IE). The IE is a versatile optical tool which can measure properties which can be related to the thickness of a film. Much as an optical microscope obtains an image of an object, the IE is capable of obtaining an image which corresponds to the thickness of a film. Besides the use of this instrument in the day-to-day characterisation of our samples, we intend to use it as the primary tool to answer some fundamental questions: Why do thin film properties differ from the bulk? At what film thickness do these anomalies start to become important? How do complex morphologies on small length scales develop and what fundamental properties can we learn from this? Addressing these issues is crucial to the development of nanoscale devices and is likely to result in major advances in our understanding of soft materials at small length-scales.