The invention discloses a diffusion method for a solar cell with a polycrystalline silicon selective emitter. The diffusion method includes the following steps: firstly, placing a silicon chip on which a doping agent grows into a diffusion furnace and raising the temperature to 750-800DEG C, wherein the environment in the furnace is N2 with the flow being 10-30slm; secondly, after the temperature is stabilized, uniformly raising the temperature in each temperature zone in the furnace to 850-900DEG C, introducing 0.2-2slm of N2 carrying trichloroethane, 1-5slm of O2 and 10-30slm of N2 while raising the temperature so as to realize heavy doping and controlling the heavily-doped sheet resistance between 30 and 60 omega/m<2>; thirdly, reducing the temperature of each temperature zone to the diffusion temperature of 820-840DEG C and introducing N2 carrying POCl3 for diffusing; fourthly, reducing the temperature of each temperature zone to 780-800DEG C, stopping introducing the N2 carrying the POCl3 so as to realize shallow doping, wherein the propulsion time is 10-25minutes and controlling the shallow-doped sheet resistance between 70-120 omega/m<2>; and fifthly, cooling the silicon chip, taking out the silicon chip and finishing the diffusion process. According to the diffusion method disclosed by the invention, the diffusion of a doping agent is realized at high temperature and the heavy doping and shallow doping of the selective emitter are realized; and meanwhile, the gettering of a polycrystalline silicon is realized, so that the conversion efficiency is greatly increased.