A study of the internal yield, depletion width, and absorption constant is presented for dc glow dischargeP‐I‐Namorphous silicon films. Internal yields of ∼0.9 at 475 nm and depletion widths as large as 0.37 &mgr;m were observed at low illumination levels and were characteristic of the better cells. The absorption constant as a function of wavelength showed no anomalies and was comparable to rf glow discharge films with an optical gap of 1.68 eV. A unique aspect of these cells is that the topPlayer is amorphous boron.