The development of thin-film photovoltaics has emerged as a promising solution to the global energy crisis within the field of solar cell technology. However, transitioning from laboratory scale to large-area solar cells requires precise and high-quality scribes to achieve the required voltage and reduce ohmic losses. Laser scribing has shown great potential in preserving efficiency by minimizing the drop in geometrical fill factor, resistive losses, and shunt formation. However, due to the laser induced photothermal effects, various defects can initiate and impact the quality of scribed grooves and weaken the module’s efficiency. In this regard, much research has been conducted to analyze the geometrical fill factor, surface integrity, and electrical performance of the laser scribes to reach higher power conversion efficiencies. This comprehensive review of laser scribing of photovoltaic solar thin films pivots on scribe quality and analyzes the critical factors and challenges affecting the efficiency and reliability of the scribing process. This review also covers the latest developments in using laser systems, parameters, and techniques for patterning various types of solar thin films to identify the optimized laser ablation condition. Furthermore, potential research directions for future investigations at improving the quality and performance of thin film laser scribing are suggested.

Pulsed laser-induced phase change in silicon underpins applications from photonic device trimming to stealth dicing, yet predictive models that capture the non-equilibrium kinetics governing the competition between epitaxial recrystallization and amorphization remain limited. In this work, we developed a two-dimensional axisymmetric numerical model at the continuum level for picosecond laser-induced melting, resolidification, and amorphization of crystalline silicon at 532 nm laser wavelength, coupling transient heat conduction with Wilson–Frenkel interface kinetics and Lagrangian marker-based interface tracking. The model predicts a bounded amorphization window defined by lower and upper fluence thresholds, within which the central amorphous thickness exhibits a bell-shaped fluence dependence. Under a Gaussian beam, this window governs a morphological transition from a central amorphous spot to an amorphous ring. The predicted amorphization threshold of ≈0.22 J/cm² agrees with published experimental data for 20 ps, 532 nm irradiation. Parametric studies reveal that reducing the spot diameter or substrate temperature shifts or eliminates the upper threshold, transforming the bounded window into a monotonically increasing function, while increasing the pulse duration narrows the window symmetrically until collapse. These results provide quantitative guidelines for selecting irradiation parameters to control phase change in silicon photonic and laser processing applications.