We report the electrical and optical characteristics of indium-tin-oxide (ITO)/GaAs Schottky barrier solar cells (SBSCs) with embedded InAs quantum dots (QDs). Twenty layers of self-assembled InAs QDs are inserted into the SBSCs so as to increase the potential barrier height at the ITO/GaAs junctions and to create additional photo-generated electrons in the quantum confined states of the QDs. After analyzing the current density-voltage characteristics, the photoluminescence, and the external quantum efficiency of the fabricated SBSCs, it was found that the incorporation of InAs QDs into the ITO/GaAs SBSCs results in an increase of both of the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current density compared to SBSCs without InAs QDs. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.