We introduce the new technique of evanescent-wave cavity ring-down ellipsometry (EW-CRDE), used for the measurement of ellipsometric angles of samples at a solid-gas or solid-liquid interface, and achieve phase-shift measurements with precision of ∼0.01°. We demonstrate the technique by measuring the time-dependent refractive index of methanol-water mixtures and thin films at the liquid/fused-silica interface, showing that the monitoring of monolayers on microsecond time scales using EW-CRDE should be achievable.
Keywords: adsorption; cavity ring-down; ellipsometry; evanescent wave; thin films.