Laser scribing process of in-house textured gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) is optimized, aiming to improve the performance of amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) photovoltaic (PV) modules. The reasons for different scribing quality of textured GZO and SnO2:F scribed at 1064nm with pulse duration of 40 ns were analyzed. Apart from separation resistance, quality of the scribed lines was evaluated by laser scan microscopy from three-dimensional images. Other types of lasers, such as laser with shorter pulse duration, laser at 355nm and laser with Gaussian-to-tophat converter, were used to smooth the edges and flatten the bottoms of the scribed lines. The proper laser scribing realizes the advantages of textured GZO films used as front contacts in PV modules. A short-circuit current density of 14.3 mA/cm(2) and an initial aperture area efficiency of 8.8% were obtained on 16cm x 16cm textured GZO coated glass scribed at 355nm with pulse duration of 40 ns. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.