NOVELTY - The method comprises depositing a back contact on a substrate (102), depositing an absorber layer (106) on the back contact, annealing the absorber layer with a laser, removing non-equilibrium phases and improving compositional homogeneity of the laser annealed absorber layer, depositing a buffer layer (108) on the laser annealed absorber layer, annealing the buffer layer with a laser, removing non-equilibrium phases and improving compositional homogeneity of the laser annealed buffer layer, and depositing a front contact on the laser annealed buffer layer.    USE - The method is useful for forming a thin film solar cell (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The method is capable of effectively and economically forming the thin film solar cell with high quality and less consumption of material in an environmentally-friendly manner.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - The method comprises depositing a back contact on a substrate (102), depositing an absorber layer (106) on the back contact, annealing the absorber layer with a laser, removing non-equilibrium phases and improving compositional homogeneity of the laser annealed absorber layer, depositing a buffer layer (108) on the laser annealed absorber layer, annealing the buffer layer with a laser, removing non-equilibrium phases and improving compositional homogeneity of the laser annealed buffer layer, and depositing a front contact on the laser annealed buffer layer. The laser annealing occurs in an atmosphere comprising a vacuum, an inert gas, a selenium-containing gas, and/or a sulfur-containing gas. The laser is a pulsed laser and/or a continuous wave laser. The laser has a wavelength of shorter than 1100 nm. A laser beam is focused to a useful shape and scanned across the surface of the absorber layer and the buffer layer. The absorber layer and the buffer layer are scanned up to 10000 mm2/sec. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for a method for forming an absorber layer by depositing a colloidal suspension of particles having the composition of the absorber layer over a substrate of a thin film solar cell.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The diagram shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a thin film photovoltaic solar cell stack.    Substrate (102)    Back contact layer (104)    Absorber layer (106)    Buffer layer (108)    Intrinsic zinc oxide layer. (110)