In this paper, the fabrication of silicon nanodome solar cells on crystalline wafers is reported. Crystalline silicon was patterned by ebeam lithography to define the silicon nano pillars with diameter of 100 nm, 1 mu m and 5 mu m. Unlike conventional bottom up growth of silicon nanowire from gold (Au), our method is free from contaminant. Consequently, it is a valuable method to fully evaluate the effect of nanostructures on solar cell performances. The fabricated devices were characterized through scanning electron microscopy, absorption measurements, illuminated solar cell I-V characteristics and monochromatic incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.