Dr. Drevillon, a renown expert in this field, has developed many such instruments in collaboration with Jobin-Yvon Instruments S.A., a French company that manufactures and markets optical characterization hardware throughout the world. The Politechnique spectroscopic ellipsometers can determine thickness, d, refractive index, n, and extinction coefficient, k, of a film within 0.2 seconds. One of their units is dedicated to thickness control during thin film deposition of oxides and nitrides. Ellipsometry also allows the control and reproducibility of the chemical composition of an interface. The Thin Films and Interfaces group interacts strongly with universities and industrial laboratories throughout the region.
Special emphasis is placed on solar cell and detector research.
It is to be used by other national groups in their basic studies. The unit is used for precision etchning control when processing ultra high density Si DRAM chips. The laboratories at Polytechnique seem to be well funded, equipped, and staffed. Senior staff member such as Dr. Drevillon partake fully in laboratory work. The universities and research establishments produce well trained scientists and engineers, most of whom end up working for French laboratories.