An optical element includes a photoelectric conversion film and an inorganic substance-containing film containing at least one selected from the group consisting of a metal nitride and a metal oxynitride, in which the photoelectric conversion film contains a quantum dot or at least one compound semiconductor selected from the group consisting of a III-V group compound semiconductor, a II-VI group compound semiconductor, and a IV-IV group compound semiconductor, and the optical density of an inorganic substance-containing film is 0.5 or more per 1.0 μm of a film thickness at a wavelength of 1,550 nm.

A photoelectric converter including a crystalline silicon substrate having a light receiving surface including a smooth section and a rough surface section having surface roughness greater than the surface roughness of the smooth section and a light transmissive inorganic film so provided as to overlap with the smooth section and the rough surface section, and the film thickness t1 of a portion of the inorganic film that is the portion where the inorganic film overlaps with the rough surface section is smaller than the film thickness t2 of a portion of the inorganic film that is the portion where the inorganic film overlaps with the smooth section. The arithmetic average roughness of the rough surface section is preferably greater than or equal to 0.1 μm.

A photoelectric converter including a crystalline silicon substrate having a light receiving surface including a smooth section and a rough surface section having surface roughness greater than the surface roughness of the smooth section and a light transmissive inorganic film so provided as to overlap with the smooth section and the rough surface section, and the film thickness t1 of a portion of the inorganic film that is the portion where the inorganic film overlaps with the rough surface section is smaller than the film thickness t2 of a portion of the inorganic film that is the portion where the inorganic film overlaps with the smooth section. The arithmetic average roughness of the rough surface section is preferably greater than or equal to 0.1 μm.

Films are modified to include deuterium in an inductive high density plasma chamber. Chamber hardware designs enable tunability of the deuterium concentration uniformity in the film across a substrate. Manufacturing of solid state electronic devices include integrated process flows to modify a film that is substantially free of hydrogen and deuterium to include deuterium.

Tandem solar cell configurations are provided where at least one of the cells is a metal chalcogenide cell. A four-terminal tandem solar cell configuration has two electrically independent solar cells stacked on each other. A two-terminal solar cell configuration has two electrically coupled solar cells (same current through both cells) stacked on each other. Carrier selective contacts can be used to make contact to the metal chalcogenide cell (s) to alleviate the troublesome Fermi level pinning issue. Carrier-selective contacts can also remove the need to provide doping of the metal chalcogenide. Doping of the metal chalcogenide can be provided by charge transfer. These two ideas can be practiced independently or together in any combination.

Films are modified to include deuterium in an inductive high density plasma chamber. Chamber hardware designs enable tunability of the deuterium concentration uniformity in the film across a substrate. Manufacturing of solid state electronic devices include integrated process flows to modify a film that is substantially free of hydrogen and deuterium to include deuterium.

A beating spectroscopy device includes: first and second quantum cascade lasers; a quantum cascade detector; and a sample holder configured to hold a sample on an optical path between the second quantum cascade laser and the quantum cascade detector. Lights from the first and second quantum cascade lasers are detected by the quantum cascade detector while a wavelength of the light from the second quantum cascade laser is changed to scan a frequency of a beating signal having a frequency in accordance with a wavelength difference between the lights from the first and second quantum cascade lasers.

Provided is a radiation detection device, comprising: a radiation detection unit consisting of two or more radiation detection elements each constituted by a pair of electrodes consisting of a first electrode and a second electrode and a radiation absorption layer that is sandwiched between the pair of electrodes, the two or more radiation detection elements being arranged in a surface direction of the radiation absorption layer; and one or more power supply units electrically connected to the first electrode, wherein the radiation detection unit comprises two or more of the first electrodes to which mutually different voltages are applied.

A solid junction-type photoelectric conversion element (10) including a first conductive layer (2), an electric power generation layer (4), and a second conductive layer (6), which are laminated in this order, wherein the electric power generation layer (4) comprises: a perovskite compound represented by a composition formula ABX.sub.3, formed of an organic cation A, a metal cation B and a halide anion X, and a compound Z having no perovskite structure.

A solid junction-type photoelectric conversion element (10) including a first conductive layer (2), an electric power generation layer (4), and a second conductive layer (6), which are laminated in this order, wherein the electric power generation layer (4) comprises: a perovskite compound represented by a composition formula ABX.sub.3, formed of an organic cation A, a metal cation B and a halide anion X, and a compound Z having no perovskite structure.