Abstract Atomic Force Microscopy has been used to study the nanoscale interaction between N719 dye and CdSe QDs/CdSe QDs and N719 dye on a TiO 2 surface in hybrid solar cells. The results of AFM study explains the factors like aggregation, linking and entrapment of sensitizers on TiO 2 surface. The photoresponse of nano sized materials in a hybrid solar cell consisting of mesoscopic TiO 2 , layers of N719 dye and CdSe quantum dots in sequential order has been reported in this paper. CdSe nanoparticles sandwiched between TiO 2 and N719 dye exhibited net power conversion efficiency of 1.16%. But the newly designed hybrid system where N719 dye anchored between TiO 2 and CdSe showed a good stability by delivering a power conversion efficiency of 2.64% with an improved open circuit potential and enhanced fill factor. In the cascade structure of TiO 2 /N719–CdSe, the re-organization of energy levels forms a stepwise structure, which is advantageous for an electron injection and hole-recovery in N719 dye and CdSe QDs respectively.