Doped ZnO films are promising candidates as a front electrode in silicon film solar cells. In present work, we report on efforts to obtain highly conductive and transparent hydrogen and molybdenum co-doped ZnO (HMZO) films prepared by pulsed direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering. Investigations were made to see the effect of hydrogen (H-2) flow rate on structural, electrical and optical properties. The results indicate that H-2 flow rate has a considerable influence on the transparent conductive properties of molybdenum doped ZnO (MZO) films. A reduced resistivity of 69.2% and a broadening optical band gap of 5.7% were obtained with the optimal H-2 flow rate of 5 sccm. The average transmittance of more than 86% in the range of 400-1100 nm was obtained with the optimal H-2 flow rate. Crater-like surface morphology with root-mean-square (RMS) roughness of 46.5 nm was also obtained after etching by diluted hydrochloric acid (HCl). Such a co-doping growing method present here may be useful for wide spectra absorption thin film solar cells. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.