We have realized BaSi 2 films by a simple vacuum evaporation technique for solar cell applications. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that single-phase BaSi 2 films are formed on alkali-free glass substrates at 500 and 600 °C while impurity phases coexist on quartz or soda-lime glass substrates or at a substrate temperature of 400 °C. The mechanism of film growth is discussed by analyzing the residue on the evaporation boat. An issue on the fabricated films is cracking due to thermal mismatch, as observed by secondary electron microscopy. Optical characterizations by transmittance and reflectance spectroscopy show that the evaporated films have high absorption coefficients, reaching 2x10^4 cm %1 for a photon energy of 1.5 eV, and have indirect absorption edges of 1.14–1.21 eV, which are suitable for solar cells. The microwave-detected photoconductivity decay measurement reveals that the carrier lifetime is approximately 0.027 µs, corresponding to the diffusion length of 0.84 µm, which suggests the potential effective usage of photoexcited carriers.