In this paper, we reported a new finding of lateral photovoltaic effect (LPE) in amorphous Si thin films based on a-Si:H(p)/a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(n) structure. We find that the position sensitivity for this structure increases with both power and wavelength under constant contact distance, and the laser wavelength can be extended from visible to infrared region. Moreover, we studied the dependence of the position sensitivity on the laser power as well as contact distance by modulating these two parameters and gave a carefully theoretical analysis. This work may provide essential insights for a-Si:H/c-Si p-i-n heterostructure as a potential candidate for position sensitive detector (PSD) devices. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.