An as-deposited ultra thin metal film was fine-etched to a mesh with average optical transmittance of 70.83%. When this metal mesh was applied to the fabrication of solar cell, it was transparent and conductive to be used as a current-spreading layer. Such a current-spreading layer was good for the carrier extraction of illuminated solar cell. Then the non-uniform two-dimensional current flow on the resistive central emitter region of solar cell can be reduced efficiently by this metal mesh. The metal mesh integrated solar cell can result in improvements of 26.15% for short-circuit current and 30% for the conversion efficiency, respectively. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.