Surface textures have been fabricated on a molybdenum doped zinc oxide (MZO) film using a shadow mask in a co-sputter process. The surface textures yielded 5.3% and 10.1% of light diffusion in the visible light region for MZO films with a thickness of 100 nm and 200 rum, respectively. Light diffusion in the near infra-red region was slightly less with 4.5% for the 100 nm MZO film and 8.9% for the 200 nm MZO film. The enhanced light diffusion will be beneficial to the light trapping efficiency of a-Si/mu-Si based thin film solar cells. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.