A novel crystal growth method named lateral diffusion epitaxy (LDE) as well as the necessary growth apparatus are described in detail. Single crystalline Si strips are grown on (1 1 1) Si substrates by LDE. The thickness of the LDE Si strips is around 100 mu m, and the aspect ratio of width to thickness is around 2 which is an improvement compared with Si strips grown by conventional liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). The LDE Si strip can be peeled off from the substrate for further device processing since the 100 mu m thickness provides reasonable mechanical strength. Due to the low cost of LDE technology it is potentially a good candidate for PV application if the LDE can achieve continuous growth and therefore grow Si strips in sizes for practical application. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.