Review: An Optical Surface Probe by Reflectance Anisotropy Spectroscopy

Abstract

Reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS) is an optical technique to produce surface and interface information. RAS measures the difference in reflectance of light linearlypolarised along two orthogonal axes in the surface at near normal incidence asa function of photon energy. The quantity obtained by RAS is the so-called reflectanceanisotropy. Since only the surface is anisotropic, the measured reflectance anisotropy isconnected only with the atomic composition of the surface, not of the bulk. This reviewpresents theoretical as well as experimental procedure to explain RAS technique.