The development of a low-cost substrate is one of the major technological challenges for crystalline Si thin-film solar cells. Zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4) ceramics is a material which can meet the demanding physical requirements as well as the cost goals. Thin microcrystalline Si films were deposited by atmospheric pressure CVD on ZrSiO4-based ceramic substrates coated with barrier layers. The Si film was transferred into a multicrystalline grain structure by zone-melting recrystallization (ZMR). Film growth was analyzed in situ and correlated with substrate and barrier layer properties. Thin-film solar cells were fabricated from selected coarse-grained films. The best solar cell achieved an efficiency of 8.3% with a short circuit current density of 26.7 mA/cm(2). The effective diffusion length obtained from internal quantum efficiency measurements was about 25 mum. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.