Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 2015, 3, 30-36 Published Online May 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/msce http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/msce.2015.35004 How to cite this paper: Mirchin, N., Tannous, E., Lapsker, I., Laihtman, A. and Peled, A. (2015) A Discrete Model of the Eva- nescent Light Emission from Ultra-Thin Layers. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 3, 30-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/msce.2015.35004 A Discrete Model of the Evanescent Light Emission from Ultra-Thin Layers N. Mirchin 1* , E. Tannous 1 , I. Lapsker 2 , A. Laihtman 2 , A. Peled 1 1 Electronic Engineering Department, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel 2 Science Department, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel Email: * nina.mirchin@gmail.com Received 27 February 2015; accepted 1 May 2015; published 7 May 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract A discrete model of the Differential Evanescent Light Intensity (DELI) technique was developed to calculate and map 3D nanolayers thicknesses from the evanescent light intensity captured from optical waveguides. The model was used for ultra-thin Pd nanometric layers sputtered on glass substrates. The layers thickness profiles were displayed in 3D and 1D profiles plots. The total thickness profiles of the ultra-thin Pd films obtained in the range of 1 - 10 nm were validated using AFM measurements. Based on the model developed the evanescent photon extraction parameter of the material was estimated. Keywords Evanescent Waves, Light Scattering, Thin Nanofilms, Thickness Profiles, Optical Nanoscopy 1. Introduction The investigation of optical scattering from nanostructures shows a growing interest due to current trends for novel nanometric surface analysis techniques. A useful phenomenon in this endeavour is the evanescent light interaction with nanofilms deposited on a surface. Many models have been proposed to describe the phenome- non of evanescent waves in nano-optics but at present there is still no conclusive physical picture for it [1]-[9]. More experimental data in this field becomes thus of both theoretical and practical interest. The optical microscopy technique named Differential Evanescent Light Intensity (DELI) was used in the past decade to investigate nanostructures profiles of various materials films with small thicknesses obtaining infor- mation also about the optical photon scattering parameters [10]-[16]. The DELI technique is based on the phe- * Corresponding author.