Crystal physics group (Assoc. Prof. Noritaka Usami, Dr. Wugen Pan et al.) has successfully implemented nanostructures to consist of photonic crystals and quantum dots in crystalline silicon solar cells, and demonstrated that the nanostructures can improve the conversion efficiency of solar cells. To our knowledge, this is the first to show that quantum dots can improve the performance of practical solar cells. The newly developed solar cells can be also used to study controlling mechanisms of the conversion efficiency of solar cells with quantum dots, and will contribute to the deep understanding of physics toward realization of ultra-high-efficiency solar cells. These achievements were reported in Nikkei-Sangyo Shimbun (November 1, 2011), and will be presented as an invited talk at 2012 spring meeting of Japan Society of Applied Physics. Further research and development on this topic will be funded by JST-ALCA.
