This corroborates well

with the absence of any distinct spots symmetrically spaced about the central spot seen in the FFT image. Figure  2c,d depicts the morphologies of nanofaceted Si templates after deposition of AZO overlayers having nominal thicknesses of 30 and 75 nm, respectively. Both these images clearly manifest the conformal growth of AZO on Si facets, albeit with increasing AZO thickness, sharpness of the facets reduces and they gradually transform from conical shapes into rod-like structures. Figure  2d documents the existence of nanoscale grains on the conformally grown AZO facets. Figure 2 Plan-view SEM images. (a) Faceted Si nanostructures. (b) AFM topographic image CH5183284 order where inset shows the 2D FFT. (c, d) After growing AZO films on nanofaceted

Si having thicknesses of 30 and 75 nm, respectively. The black arrows indicate the direction of ionbeam bombardment, whereas the yellow arrows represent the direction of AZO flux during sputter deposition. The elemental composition of these samples was studied by energy find protocol dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) analysis which does not reveal the presence of any metallic impurity in these facets. A representative EDS spectrum corresponding to the 60-nm-thick AZO film on nanofaceted Si is depicted in Figure  3a. Thickness-dependent EDS study demonstrates that concentration of Zn increases with increasing film thickness, while that of silicon decreases rapidly (Figure  3b). Subsequent elemental mapping exhibits Zn-rich apex of the conformally grown AZO faceted structures. Morphological evolution for AZO overlayer crotamiton of more than 75 nm

thick is not presented here since the reflectance minimum goes beyond the spectral range (will be discussed later). Crystalline nature of the AZO overlayers was revealed from XRD studies (Figure  3c), where the appearance of only one peak, in addition to the substrate silicon signal (not shown), can be attributed to the oriented nature of grains. This peak, at all thicknesses, matches well with the (002) reflection of the hexagonal wurzite phase of AZO indicating a preferential growth along the c-axis [16]. The average grain size determined from Scherrer’s formula is seen to grow bigger with increasing AZO thickness [17]. This corroborates well with the grain size analysis performed on the basis of the SEM studies. Figure 3 EDS and XRD study results. (a) Representative EDS spectrum of 60-nm-thick AZO overlayer grown on Si nanofacets, showing the presence of Si, Zn, and O. (b) Plot of atomic concentration versus AZO overlayer thickness obtained from EDS analyses. The solid lines are guide to the eyes. (c) X-ray diffractograms of AZO films grown on nanofaceted silicon. The signal corresponding to the 30-nm-thick AZO overlayer is not strong, and therefore, the corresponding diffractogram is not shown here.