Photovoltaic Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells have rapidly emerged as a leading photovoltaic technology due to their remarkable power conversion efficiencies, tunable bandgaps and low‐temperature solution processing. Within a decade, device efficiencies have climbed from below 4 % to over 25 %, rivalling silicon and cadmium‐telluride technologies. Key performance drivers include the intrinsic defect tolerance of metal‐halide perovskites, which enables long carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths, and the ability to engineer interfaces that minimise nonradiative recombination. Advances in compositional engineering—such as mixed cation and mixed halide formulations—have improved thermal and moisture stability. Device architectures have diversified from simple planar heterojunctions to back‐contact and multi-junction arrangements, enhancing light management and voltage output. Simultaneously, efforts to understand and suppress ion migration, ensure long‐term operational stability and mitigate parasitic optical losses have yielded robust modules with lifetimes exceeding 1,000 hours under accelerated ageing conditions. The convergence of materials chemistry, interface science and optical design has brought perovskite photovoltaics to the threshold of commercial viability, with tandem and multi‐junction schemes promising efficiencies beyond 30 % in the near term.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have shown that incorporation of bromine into methylammonium lead iodide films can more than double charge carrier lifetime, leading to enhanced diffusion lengths and an optimal active layer thickness without sacrificing open-circuit voltage. This work highlights the interplay between mobile ions and trap states in determining device performance. Complementary research has demonstrated that ultrathin organic charge-extraction layers can transfer excitation energy efficiently to the perovskite absorber, eliminating parasitic absorption losses in the visible spectrum. By optimising photoluminescence quantum efficiency and layer thickness to below 10 nm, parasitic losses are virtually eradicated, enabling higher short-circuit currents and stable power output. Another approach employs self-assembled dipolar monolayers at metal–perovskite interfaces in back-contact architectures, achieving built-in potentials equivalent to conventional transport layers. Such devices attain photovoltages of around 600 mV and photocurrents exceeding 12 mA cm–2, underscoring the potential of interface dipoles to drive efficient charge extraction without additional transport materials.

Photovoltaic Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cells across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Power conversion efficiency (PCE): The ratio of electrical power delivered by the cell to incident solar power.

Open-circuit voltage (Voc): Maximum voltage under illumination when no external current is drawn.

Fill factor (FF): Ratio of maximum obtainable power to the product of Voc and short-circuit current.

Charge carrier lifetime: Average time that photogenerated electrons or holes persist before recombining.

Diffusion length: Mean distance a carrier travels before recombination.

Nonradiative recombination: Carrier recombination processes that dissipate energy as heat rather than light.

External quantum efficiency (EQE): Fraction of incident photons converted into collected charge carriers at a given wavelength.

References

1. Triple-junction perovskite–perovskite–silicon solar cells with power conversion efficiency of 24.4%. Energy & Environmental Science (2024).
2. Improved charge carrier lifetime in planar perovskite solar cells by bromine doping. Scientific Reports (2016).
3. Effect of Perovskite Thickness on Electroluminescence and Solar Cell Conversion Efficiency. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2020).
4. Dipole-field-assisted charge extraction in metal-perovskite-metal back-contact solar cells. Nature Communications (2017).
5. Towards Efficient Integrated Perovskite/Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: Interfacial Energetic Requirement to Reduce Charge Carrier Recombination Losses. Advanced Functional Materials (2020).
6. Efficient energy transfer mitigates parasitic light absorption in molecular charge-extraction layers for perovskite solar cells. Nature Communications (2020).