Influence of component imperfection on null ellipsometry with phase modulation

A new null ellipsometer has been recently proposed that uses photoelastic modulator (PEM). The phase modulation adds a good signal-to-noise ratio, high sensitivity, and linearity near null positions to the traditional high-precision nulling system. The ellipsometric angles Delta and psi are obtained by azimuth measurement of the analyzer and the polarizer-PEM system, for which the first and second harmonics of modulator frequency cross the zeros. In this paper we discuss influence of component imperfection on precision of null measurement. Particular interest is devoted to azimuth angle error of compensator and modulator. Effect of residual birefringence of PEM is discussed. We show that the null system is insensitive to ellipsometer misadjustment and component imperfections and modulator calibration is not needed.