The San Jose company, founded in 2002, makes solar panels using copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar cells.

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The researchers first created separate nanoparticles of two materials, lead selenide and magnetic iron oxide, with precise dimensions.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

The three main types of thin film technologies use cadmium-telluride, copper-indium-gallium-selenide and amorphous-silicon to convert sunlight into electricity.

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That would change the way the magnetic field of the iron oxide interacts with the semiconducting behaviour of the lead selenide.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

IBM's approach is based on a process developed by IBM Research to crank out so-called thin-film solar cells based on copper, indium, gallium and selenide.

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The ink will work on silicon solar panels as well as those using alternative materials such as cadmium telluride (used by First Solar in the U.S.) or copper indium gallium selenide (used by Solar Frontier in Japan).

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Nanosolar is one of several Silicon Valley startups that have attracted billions of dollars in venture capital to develop a thin-film technology called copper indium gallium selenide, or CIGS. Such solar cells use little expensive silicon, the main ingredient of conventional photovoltaic cells.

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