The process of obtaining thin film solar cells using the method of aluminum-induced crystallization under rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was investigated. 200-nm-thick amorphous Si (a-Si) film was deposited on a glass substrate using an ultra-high vacuum ion beam sputtering system. A 50-nm-thick crystal aluminum layer was then evaporated and deposited onto the a-Si film. In contrast to conventional furnace annealing. RTA can supply rapid thermal energy so that a-Si can be induced into microcrystalline-Si (mu c-Si) in a short time at low temperatures. The crystal Al may promote the crystallization reaction because its surface energy is higher than 0.89 N/m, which is the minimum energy required to produce the (111) orientation. Free Si atoms are induced at the interface of the Al and Si sub-layers by the diffusion of Al along the grain boundaries. The Raman spectrum shows that the sample could be induced to crystallize at 350 degrees C. After the aluminum was etched, the maximum grain size was 4 mu m. The carrier mobility was between 6.2 cm(2)/Vs and 18.8 cm(2)/Vs. The proposed method can be used to obtain mu c-Si with reduced energy and time during the thermal annealing. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.