The main purpose of this project is to establish the independent research leadership of the main applicant and the necessary scientific infrastructure with the objective to conduct an research of the advanced solar cell materials. The project will enable the transfer of knowledge and skills into Croatia, by collaborating with the group from University of Manchester, which is one of the leading group’s in the field. The world today consumes 13 TW of energy. By the year 2050, it is anticipated that we will need 30 TW of energy resources in place to maintain economic growth and sustain emerging economies such as China and India. The finite life of fossil fuel reserves and fears of global warming necessitate a move to renewable energy. Solar power is seen by many as the only long term solution to the world’s energy problems. One aspect of this is the generation of electricity by photovoltaic semiconductors often referred to as solar cells. The main objective of this project is to investigate properties of the advanced solar cell materials for such solar cells, so called “nano solar cells”,.In this project we have available three growth techniques which will be used for sample preparation. Although silicon nanocrystals have been studied extensively in the past few years, this research is mainly focus on the structural properties of the silicon nanocrystals embedded in an oxide matrix. The samples will be characterized with electrical and optical methods. Capacitance technique such as Laplace Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (Laplace DLTS) will be used for the very first time for studying the electrical properties of the silicon nanocrystals in the oxide matrix. The information that could be obtained with this technique, regarding the electrical behavior of the silicon nanocrystals such as free carrier concentration, deep trap states, activation energies etc., are of the crucial importance for the application of silicon nanocrystals in future generations of solar cells. With this we can assist the development of the Croatia’s solar industry. This project will also provide the opportunity for transfer of knowledge to undergraduate students working on their diploma thesis. This project will enable the main applicant to set up the international collaboration with scientists from the European universities, and it will strongly support the integration of the Croatian science in the European framework.