In this study, highly stabilized hydrogenated amorphous silicon films and their solar cells were developed. The films were fabricated using the triode deposition system, where a mesh was installed between the cathode and the anode (substrate) in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. At a substrate temperature of 250 degrees C, the hydrogen concentration of the resulting film (Si-H = 4.0 at%, Si-H-2 < 1 x 10(20) cm(-3)) was significantly less than that of conventionally prepared films. The films were used to develop the i-layers of solar cells that exhibited a significantly low degradation ratio of 7.96%. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.