Patent ID: 8169611

Claim:
A method of characterizing a sample comprising the steps of: A) providing an ellipsometer or polarimeter system; said ellipsometer or polarimeter system comprising a selection from the group consisting of: a1) an FTIR source of electromagnetic radiation in functional combination with a polarization state generator, that provides substantially polarized output in a frequency range above about 1 THz; and a2) a polarization state generator comprising an FTIR source of electromagnetic radiation which provides substantially polarized output in a frequency range above about 1 THz; and a selection from the group consisting of: a3) a THz source of electromagnetic radiation in functional combination with a polarization state generator, that provides substantially polarized output in a frequency range between 300 GHz or lower and extending higher than at least 1 THz; a4) a polarization state generator comprising a THz source of electromagnetic radiation that provides substantially polarized output in a frequency range between 300 GHz or lower and extending higher than at least 1 THz; said ellipsometer or polarimeter system further comprising means for selecting between said THz and FTIR sources; b) a sample support; c) at least one detector system of electromagnetic radiation in a frequency range between 300 GHz or lower and extending higher than at least 1 THz; said ellipsometer or polarimeter system further comprising at least one odd-bounce polarization state rotation system present between said selected source and selected detector; said ellipsometer or polarimeter system further comprising, between said source and said detector, at least one selection from the group: a stationary, rotatable or rotating polarizer between said THz source and said sample support; a stationary, rotatable or rotating analyzer between said sample support and said detector; and a stationary, rotatable or rotating compensator between said source and detector; such that in use a functional combination of selected source and selected detector is applied to cause electromagnetic radiation to impinge on and interact with a sample on said sample support, then enter said selected detector, to the end that said detector produces an output; B) selecting a source and detector; C) applying said selected source to cause substantially polarized electromagnetic radiation to impinge on and interact with said sample on said sample support, then proceed to and enter said selected detector, to the end that said detector provides output; said method further comprising: storing at least some output provided by said detector in a non-transitory machine readable media and analyzing at least some of the output provided by said detector.