Antireflection (AR) coatings for spherical crystalline silicon solar cells are theoretically optimized from the viewpoint of achieving the largest photon densities in the spherical crystalline silicon solar cells. Because the AR film thickness is optimized with regard to the photon densities in the spherical crystalline silicon solar cells, tolerance in the film thickness can be evaluated. Also, the optimized AR film thicknesses for the spherical crystalline silicon solar cells and planar crystalline silicon solar cells are compared, and analytic expressions for the optimized AR film thicknesses are derived as a function of a quarter-wavelength film thickness. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.