"CHIPS: Quantum confinement ups optical-film efficiency"

A Washington State University professor recently demonstrated that optical materials could be made up to 30 times more sensitive than the state of the art at the time, after teaming with two WSU colleagues to publish design guidelines for creating highly light-sensitive "designer" molecules. Now researchers in China and Belgium have answered the academics' call with an organic "chromophore" material that is said to be 50 percent more sensitive than anything previously tested. Chromophores have been prime candidates for organic dye-sensitized solar cells, since they emit electrons when light is shone on them. But the new chromophore molecular configuration incorporates quantum confinement into each cell, greatly increasing chromophore efficiency.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196800660