5 at.% In and 13.5 at.% Sb [25]. The present result provides InSb nanocrystals of nearly twice this size. In addition, no inclusion of In2O3 is seen in the InSb-added Al-oxide thin films, while this does appear in the present study (Figures 2 and 3). These

different results are probably due to the difference in the free energy of reaction between the two oxides, TiO2 and Al2O3[16]. Specifically, Al2O3 with its smaller free energy of reaction is thermodynamically more stable than TiO2. InSb-added Al-oxide thin films also exhibit a narrower size distribution in the InSb nanocrystals compared with that of the SiO2 matrix [26], whose free energy of reaction is close to that of the TiO2. The thermodynamic stability of the matrix may affect the aggregation of the InSb nanocrystals during Selleckchem NSC 683864 postannealing, although the size distribution of the InSb nanocrystals GSK458 cell line dispersed in the multiphase this website matrix, TiO2 and In2O3, is not estimated here, due to a difficulty of finding InSb nanocrystals in the HRTEM image containing three kinds of crystals, InSb, TiO2, and In2O3. The present results indicate that InSb-added TiO2 nanocomposite films provide a composite with InSb nanocrystals embedded in a multioxide matrix composing TiO2 and In2O3 and exhibiting vis-NIR absorption due to quantum size effects of the InSb nanocrystals. One-step synthesis

of a composite thin film therefore has potential for low-cost production of next-generation solar cells. Conclusions InSb-added TiO2 nanocomposite films have been proposed as candidate materials for quantum dot solar cells. It should be pointed out that composite thin films with InSb nanocrystals dispersed in a multiphase composing TiO2 and In2O3 appear in a restricted composition range from 12 to 18 at.% (In + Sb), because of compositional variation. The optical absorption edge shifts toward the vis-NIR

range, favorably absorbing a desirable energy region for high conversion efficiency. A HRTEM image indicates that the composite thin film contains spherical InSb nanocrystals with a size of approximately 15 nm. This size is sufficiently small to exhibit quantum size effects. InSb-added TiO2 nanocomposite films also produce In2O3, due to decomposition of the added InSb during Thiamine-diphosphate kinase postannealing. The electrical properties are not studied at all in the present study. However, the photocurrent of the composite may be enhanced by including In2O3, since the carrier mobility of the phase mixture of TiO2 and In2O3 is higher than that of the pure TiO2. Therefore, a multioxide matrix of TiO2 and In2O3 with InSb nanocrystals should be useful for next-generation solar cells. Author information SA is a group leader of the Research Institute for Electromagnetic Materials. Acknowledgments The present work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 24360295).