This paper presents an n-i-p type solar cell structure consisting of polycrystalline silicon thin film as an absorber of incident radiation and a ZnO thin film for optical improvement. The characteristics of Si layers (thickness and doping level) are designed to assure a high value of collection efficiency for photogenerated carriers. The thin films of polycrystalline silicon are obtained by CVD at a temperature of around 620degreesC. ZnO thin film is prepared by thermal decomposition of Zn-acetylacetonate [Zn(C5H7O)(2)] in a vertical reactor. It is used as AR coating and as contact electrode due to its properties of high transparency (> 90%) and high conductivity (3 x 10(-4) Omega cm). Polycrystalline silicon and ZnO films have been investigated in terms of surface morphology and grain size by AFM and XRD. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.