hydrogen plasma etch without silane for a period of about 150 to about 750 seconds without damaging the optical and electrical properties of said n 1 layer thereafter the hydrogen treated n 1 layer is nucleated with a negatively doped hydrogen plasma and a silicon containing feedstock to form a negatively doped microcrystalline tunnel junction or microcrystalline recombination junction u03bcn layer having a thickness of about 50 u00e5 to about 120 u00e5 next in the process a second p i n solar cell is formed by depositing a positively doped p 2 layer on the microcrystalline n layer u03bcn layer an active instrinic i 2 layer on the p 2 layer and a negatively doped n 2 layer on the i 2 layer the first p i n solar cell is connected to the second p i n solar cell with the microcrystalline tunnel junction recombination junction comprising the n 1 layer the u03bcn layer and the p 2 layer an aluminum silver or other metal back plate can be placed on the n 2 layer a portion of the back plate can be coated with a back plate conducting oxide such as tin oxide or zinc oxide plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of the microcrystalline layers can be accomplished in many ways plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition can be carried out with a feedstock diluted with a diluent the dilution ratio of the diluent to said feedstock can range.