NOVELTY - Antireflective coating comprises an amorphous silicon carbide-based film, which further comprises hydrogen atoms and optionally further comprises oxygen and/or nitrogen atoms, where the film has an effective refractive index (n) of 2.3-2.7 and an extinction coefficient (k) of less than 0.01 at a wavelength of 630 nm.    USE - The antireflective coating is useful in: a solar cell (all claimed); and solar cell industry, specifically for multicrystalline solar cells where hydrogen is expected to passivate the surface and the bulk of the solar cell.    ADVANTAGE - The antireflective coating reduces the absorption of useful light. The silicon carbide (SIC) films in the antireflective coating have excellent mechanical properties such as hardness and wear resistance, which are attractive for protective and tribological coatings and such coatings can themselves contain the hydrogen atoms needed for bulk passivation of multicrystalline solar cells. The antireflective coating has high refractive index and low extinction coefficient. The antireflective coating provides higher useful light transmission and improvement of solar cell efficiency. The antireflective coating film shows very high optical and physical (thickness) stability after exposure to high temperature processing. The silicon carbide film contains the hydrogen atoms, which can impart good passivation characteristics to the antireflective coating film. The antireflective coating films can also be prepared without the use of silane or hydrogen gases, which prove beneficial in terms of safety, ease of control, and costs.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for:    (1) a method for forming the antireflective coating, comprising depositing on a substrate of organosilanes and/or organopolycarbosilanes, obtained from pyrolysis of a solid organosilane source;    (2) an antireflective coating comprising two or more layers, where at least one layer is the antireflective coating;    (3) a solar cell comprising the antireflective coating; and    (4) a gas mixture comprising: either methylsilane (up to 80 or up to 10 wt.%), dimethylsilane (up to 85 or up to 15 wt.%), trimethylsilane (5-45 wt.%), tetramethylsilane (up to 10 wt.%), 1,1,2-trimethylcarbodisilane (up to 35 or 10-35 wt.%), 1,1,2,2,-tetramethylcarbodisilane (up to 20 or 2-20 wt.%), and 1,1,1,2,2-pentamethylcarbodisilane (up to 10 wt.%); or methylsilane (20-45 wt.%), dimethylsilane (35-65 wt.%), trimethylsilane (5-15 wt.%), and optionally gaseous carbosilane species (up to 10 wt.%).