J R Molina-Contreras et al 2007 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40 4922 doi:10.1088/0022-3727/40/16/025
J R Molina-Contreras1,6, C Medina-Gutiérrez2, C Frausto-Reyes3, R Trejo-Vázquez1, F J Villalobos-Piña1, G Romo-Luevano4 and S Calixto5
Show affiliationsIn this paper, we develop a sensitive optical method to monitor the surface roughness in the investigation of surfaces. By applying this method to measure the RMS surface roughness of various surfaces, we found RMS values which are comparable to those obtained by atomic force microscopy measurements. In addition, we present a simple empirical model to calculate the RMS surface roughness which shows very good agreement with the surface roughness measurements taken by the method reported in this paper. Finally, the application of our method to the study of the LO-phonon mode of CdS suggests that its intensity is dominated by the surface roughness. This roughness dependent behaviour of the CdS LO-phonon mode is experimentally confirmed by using an excitation wavelength near its E0 transition.
68.35.B- Structure of clean surfaces (and surface reconstruction)
68.37.Ps Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
78.68.+m Optical properties of surfaces
Issue 16 (21 August 2007)
Received 15 May 2007
Published 3 August 2007
J R Molina-Contreras et al 2007 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40 4922
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