Classical ghost-imaging spectral ellipsometer.

We introduce a novel approach for the spectral characterization of inhomogeneous thin films and interfaces by means of an imaging ghost ellipsometer operating with classical light of Gaussian statistics. We show that the device output in general provides the ellipsometric information associated with the fractional Fourier transforms of the sample's reflection coefficients, which in special cases reduce to the Fourier transforms or images. The formalisms for both one-dimensional and two-dimensional samples are presented. The method is insensitive to instrumentation errors and, unlike in traditional ellipsometry, no source or detector calibration is needed. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America