Silver-copper alloy-induced crystallization of sputtered a-Si has been studied In this alloy Cu acts as a catalyst to accelerate the crystallization while Ag acts as a new kind of buffer layer different from Al2O3 and Si3N4 to obtain well-crystallized poly-Si films with short annealing time and free of post-treatment for ohmic contact When the Cu content is limited to below 30% Ag can effectively slow down the diffusion of Cu into Si and decrease the Cu-silicide nuclei density to improve the crystalline volume ratio from 80% to over 90% A 1 4 ratio of Cu to Ag yields the best result The crystalline volume ratio and Hall mobility reach nearly 100% and 294 cm(2)/V s respectively This high quality poly-Si film demonstrates a promising application in solar cells (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved