Amorphous semiconductors equivalent to crystalline semiconductors

A method of making an amorphous semiconductor film or the like having desirable photoconductive and/or other properties comprises forming an amorphous semiconductor film, preferably by vaporizing silicon or the like in an evacuated space and condensing the same on a substrate in such space, and preferably at the same time, introducing at least two or three compensating or altering agents into the film, like activated hydrogen and fluorine, in amounts which substantially reduce or eliminate the localized states in the energy gap thereof so that greatly increased diffusion lengths for solar cell applications is obtained and dopants can be effectively added to produce P or N amorphous semiconductor films so that the films function like similar crystalline materials