A novel nanoplate-structured thin-film solar cell was investigated that could solve the conflict between light absorption and carrier transport in a p-type amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC)/i-type amorphous silicon germanide (a-SiGe)/n-type amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film solar cell. This structure has an n-type a-Si nanoplate array on the substrate, a-SiC p-layer, and an a-SiGe i-layer which are sequentially grown along the surface of each n-type a-Si nanoplate. Under illumination by sunlight, light is absorbed along the vertical direction of the nanoplate, while the carrier transport is along the horizontal direction. The nanoplate structure may absorb most of the sunlight and provide a thinner film for the effective transport of photon-generated carriers as compared to the conventional planar structure. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.