An internal layer consisting of three-dimensional (3D) shuttlelike up-converting erbium-doped yttrium oxide (Y2O3:Er3+) and ZnO nanocrystalline aggregates is fabricated and implemented in photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Such a hybrid photoanode film not only broadens the light-absorbing range to near-infrared region by incorporation of up-converting material but also generates significant light scattering arising from both the micron-sized shuttlelike Y2O3:Er3+ and submicron-sized ZnO aggregates as confirmed by the optical characterizations. Owing to the synergic improvement of light harvesting, the overall photo-to-current conversion efficiency (PCE) of ZnO-DSC is significantly improved from 4.08% to 5.63% with an optimized doping amount of 11% Y2O3:Er3+ in the internal layer. Further, a competitive PCE of 6.26% is also achieved for a tiny-sized device with 11% Y2O3:Er3+, suggesting the substantial potential of 3D up-converting material in improving DSC performance. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.