Chlorinated intrinsic amorphous silicon films [a-Si:H(Cl)] and solar cell i-layers were fabricated using electron cyclotron resonance-assisted chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) and SiH2Cl2 source gas. n-i-p solar cells deposited on ZnO-coated SnO2 substrates had poor photovoltaic performances despite the good electronic properties measured on the a-Si:H(Cl) films. Improved open-circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.84 V and fill factor (FF) of 54% were observed in n-i-p solar cells by providing an n/i buffer layer and by using Ga-doped ZnO coated glass substrates. However, the FF improvement was still rather poor, which is thought to originate from high interface recombination in the ECR deposited solar cells. The V-oc and the FF showed much stable feature against light soaking. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.