Monitoring silver solid-state dewetting with in situ ellipsometry

We consider the possibility of monitoring silver solid-state dewetting with in situ ellipsometry. We first study the optical response of partially dewetted samples in correlation with their morphological structure measured by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). We find that the main features observed in microscopy are identifiable in ellipsometry spectra. Then, we analyse the dielectric function extracted from in situ measurements to predict the progression in the dewetting process. We also identify two different behaviours leading to different final states.