Beaglehole Instruments supplies a range of IgorPro macros to simulate ellipsometric data.

These routines can be easily modified to suit any non-standard experiment.

No prior experience with IgorPro is required to run the instrument.

Time-resolved data can also be combined into a QuickTime movie.

Images and graphs can be printed in publication quality (Printer available as an option).

The Imaging Ellipsometer uses a Pentium II computer under Windows NT/2000 for computing, visualising and managing the ellipsometry data. The image data is transferred into the computer’s memory in real time through a PCI bus framegrabber board.

The computer’s processor is fast enough to calculate the ellipsometry image without additional signal processing hardware. To minimise noise pickup, the analog-to-digital conversion of the image data is done in the camera itself. This ensures that the full resolution of 12 bits per pixel is retained. The camera has a typical dynamic range of over 70 dB.
 

The use of IgorPro makes a wealth of image processing and data analysis features available online, including all ellipsometric simulation software included with the Picometer Ellipsometer and image processing functions such as FFT, digital filters, particle counting and analysis, and 3-dimensional surface plots.

Most of these functions can be applied to 1- and 2-dimensional data likewise. A time-resolved series of images can be treated as a single 3-dimensional data set; IgorPro’s Graphical Slicer then allows the user to cut arbitrary 2-dimensional slices through the data.

The Imaging Ellipsometer’s graphical user interface makes it easy for the operator to access IgorPro’s analysis capabilities. IgorPro is also fully programmable, which allows the user both to implement data analysis routines, and to automate the operation of the instrument itself.

The software also enables the user to take full control over the setting of the retarder and the polariser. In this mode, the instrument does not measure ellipticity images, but acts as a Brewster-Angle microscope with very fast response (over 100 frames/s).