NOVELTY - A solar cell comprises an n-doped semiconductor layer (2), p-doped semiconductor layer (3), and intermediate band layer (1) being disposed between the semiconductor layers. The intermediate band layer comprises amorphous semiconducting host material (9); colloidal quantum dots (7) embedded in host material and substantially uniformly distributed in it, each dot comprising core surrounded by shell having material with higher bandgap than that of host material; and metal nanoparticles (8) embedded in host material and located at least in a plane where quantum dots are distributed.    USE - As a solar cell, particularly intermediate band solar cell (Claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The metal nanoparticles are efficient optical antennas at their surface plasmon resonance, attracting the light from their surroundings and focusing it in their near-field, forming a light trapping structure in the cell that increases the absorption of light in the intermediate band and, thus improves the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. The present solar cell solves the prior art problems, by adding important modifications related to the structure and manufacturing of the quantum dots and to the incorporation of a plasmonic light trapping system to enhance the intermediate band absorption. The present solar cell provides number of advantages as compared to conventional Stranski-Krastanov (SK)-grown quantum dot-intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) selected from: allows the use of inexpensive materials; provides ease of fabrication and large scale processing; enables a higher control on the quantum dot geometry; utilizes colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) having stronger quantum confinement, since CQDs are not limited by strain requirements such as the SK QDs, they can be made much smaller, with diameters of a few nanometers, and spherical; produced without wetting layer; utilizes a broader range of optimal dot/host material combinations; allows QDs with higher radiative lifetimes; provides access to the QDs surface; and enables the assembly of QDs with other colloidal species, such as metal nanoparticles for light trapping.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A solar cell comprises: an n-doped semiconductor layer (2), a p-doped semiconductor layer (3), and an intermediate band layer (1) being disposed between the semiconductor layers. The intermediate band layer comprises: an amorphous semiconducting host material (9); colloidal quantum dots (7) embedded in the host material and substantially uniformly distributed in it, each quantum dot comprising a core surrounded by a shell comprising a material having a higher bandgap than that of the host material; and metal nanoparticles (8) embedded in the host material and located at least in a plane where quantum dots are distributed. The quantum dots shell has a thickness of 0.1-5 nanometers. The quantum dots have a diameter of 1-10 nanometers. The nanoparticles embedded in the host material are colloidal nanoparticles. The nanoparticles shell has a thickness of 1-10 nanometers. The metal nanoparticles have a diameter of 10-100 nanometers. The intermediate band layer has a thickness of 0.1-5 micrometers. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for manufacturing the solar cell, involving: depositing a first electrode layer on a supporting substrate; depositing a first doped semiconductor layer on the first electrode substrate; depositing an intermediate band layer on the first doped semiconductor layer; depositing a second doped semiconductor layer on the intermediate band layer, the doping of the second doped semiconductor being opposed to the doping of the first doped semiconductor; and depositing a second electrode layer on the second doped semiconductor layer, where the step of depositing an intermediate band layer on the first doped semiconductor layer involves (c1) depositing a first layer of a host material, (c2) depositing on the host material layer colloidal metal nanoparticles to form a nanoparticle array, (c3) depositing colloidal quantum dots on the host material layer such that in the array of quantum dots and nanoparticles each quantum dot is positioned within a distance of substantially the nanoparticle size from the surface of at least one nanoparticle, the order of stages (c2) and (c3) being interchangeable, and (c4) depositing a second layer of host material to cover the array of quantum dots and nanoparticles.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a schematic front view of the layer structure of the solar cell.    Intermediate band layer (1)    N-doped layer (2)    P-doped layer (3)    First and second metallic contacts (4, 5)    Substrate (6)    Colloidal quantum dots (7)    Colloidal metal nanoparticles (8)    Host semiconductor (9)