Harland G. Tompkins received his BS in physics from the University of Missouri and his PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a consultant for the J. A. Woollam Company in Lincoln, NE, as well as for other companies. He has written numerous journal articles in the reviewed technical literature, is the author of four books, and has edited two books.

James N. Hilfiker graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Nebraska, where he studied under Professor John Woollam. He joined the J.A. Woollam Company upon graduation and has worked in their applications lab for 20 years. His research at the J.A. Woollam Company has focused on new applications of ellipsometry, including characterization of anisotropic materials, liquid crystal films, and, more recently, thin film photovoltaics. He has authored over 40 technical articles involving ellipsometry.

Ellipsometry is an experimental technique for determining the thickness and optical properties of thin films. It is ideally suited for films ranging in thickness from sub-nanometer to several microns. Spectroscopic measurements have greatly expanded the capabilities of this technique and introduced its use into all areas where thin films are found: semiconductor devices, flat panel and mobile displays, optical coating stacks, biological and medical coatings, protective layers, and more. While several scholarly books exist on the topic, this book provides a good introduction to the basic theory of the technique and its common applications. The target audience is not the ellipsometry scholar, but process engineers and students of materials science who are experts in their own fields and wish to use ellipsometry to measure thin film properties without becoming an expert in ellipsometry itself.