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"This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation," Rand said. "In solar cells , the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat.

Such potentially highly efficient cells, coupled with their low cost per unit area, are called Third (or Next) Generation Solar Cells.

Contrary to what one might expect, these electrodes have the potential to be relatively cheap since the thickness of gold used is only 8 billionths of a metre. This ultra-low thickness means that even at the current high gold price the cost of the gold needed to fabricate one square metre of this electrode is only around £4.5 (7.3 $).

The results of the test showed that light penetrating the blocked device efficiently yielded current from all three energy bands - valence to intermediate, intermediate to conduction, and valence to conduction - and responded strongly to all parts of the spectrum, from infrared with an energy of about 1.1 electron volts (1.1 eV), to over 3.2 eV, well into the ultraviolet.

Using a common metal most famously found in self-cleaning ovens, Sossina Haile hopes to change our energy future. The metal is cerium oxide-or ceria-and it is the centerpiece of a promising new technology developed by Haile and her colleagues that concentrates solar energy and uses it to efficiently convert carbon dioxide and water into fuels.

Quantum Dot Market by Product (Display, Medical Devices, Batteries, Solar Cells, Sensors, and Others), Material, Application (Healthcare, Consumer, Defense, and Industry), and Geography- Forecast up to 2020

Currently the system uses only one photon at a time, but a two-photon system, while more complicated, would be more effective in using the full spectrum of sunlight.