Company Information

John Rochfort, Managing Director of Vega Industries, with the Optical Table that was designed and manufactured by Vega.

Beaglehole Instruments is a small company specializing in phase-modulated single-beam and imaging ellipsometry. We aim to provide affordable individual solutions for research and development in thin-film and surface analysis with polarized light. Our flexible and highly sensitive instruments are designed for environments where experimental setups are often changing. We specialise in providing solutions for new challenges to the ellipsometry technique, such as imaging and measurements from liquid surfaces.

Modular and Affordable Solutions

The design of our instruments is based on a modular component system, allowing customers to choose the optimal instrument configuration for their application. This makes our solutions very cost efficient. As opposed to turnkey-operation systems that are often designed as a black box for a particular type of measurement, we follow an open system approach that, if required, provides access to any level of operation. The user always has direct control over all measurement parameters - nothing is hidden. In a research environment, this helps to assess data credibility, and enables the user to react to problems with the experimental setup. This approach requires the user to understand how the instrument works, but in turn leads to confidence in the results. For example, since the parameters on an analog lock-in amplifier are best adjusted by hand, our lock-ins have manual controls which are read out by the control software. The user manual explains how to optimise the settings on the different components, a process that cannot be automated. The software user interface to our instruments is written in a easy-to-learn macro language with the source code readily available. The modular hardware component system allows the configuration of the instrument to be changed at any time. Additional components can be fitted to enhance the functionality, and can be shared between different instruments. Whatever reseach problems you may encounter, the chances are that the instrument can be adapted to them.

Our staff is experienced in designing custom systems for non-standard applications. The modular approach makes it easy to adapt an instrument to most requirements. In addition, customers can provide components from their own workshop or modify the instrument themselves. Our aim is not to provide ellipsometers for every conceivable use. However, modulated and imaging ellipsometry have advantages over more conventional methods in some areas. To find out whether this is the case for your application, just discuss it with us.

Our Background

Beaglehole Instruments started in 1991 as a partnership between David Beaglehole and Andy Edgar, who both are on the staff of the Physics Department of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The company was registered as Beaglehole Instruments Ltd in 1993.

In the early stages, most of the hardware was hand-made in the workshops of Victoria University. Now, our completely redesigned hardware is CNC milled to highest accuracy by a local contractor. We have come a long way since the first ellipsometer was sold, as you can see on our web pages.

© beaglehole instruments 1998,1999 All material on this page is copyright. Last updated: Thursday, 18 January 2001