The authors report the effect of a low-temperature buffer layer of Cu2O (LTB-Cu2O) on the growth of Cu2O thin films. The samples were prepared by radio frequency-magnetron sputtering. It was found that with the introducing of LTB-Cu2O, the linewidth of the X-ray diffraction peak decreases and the Cu2O thin films have preferred (111) orientation. By introducing LTB-Cu2O, the grain size sufficiently increases and the surface flatness improves, as indicated from the atomic force microscopy measurement. Under the optimum growth conditions, hole mobility of 256 cm(2) V-1 s(-1), which is the highest value reported so far, with the hole concentration of 1 x 10(14) cm(-3) was achieved. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.