In the last 5 years, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as a low-cost, thin-film technology with unprecedented efficiency gains from 3.8% in 2009 to 22.7% in 2018 challenging the quasi-paradigm that high efficiency photovoltaics must come at high costs. Perovskites can be processed via inexpensive solution-methods and have exceptional material properties (comparable to expensive, high-temperature processed materials such as GaAs, Si). The perovskite band gap can be tuned from 1 to 3 eV. Therefore, perovskites are at the centre stage of current semiconductor research.

The combination of high-quality semiconductors with low-cost deposition techniques seem to be a match made in heaven creating great excitement and anticipation far beyond the academic ivory tower because PSCs may have the potential to outcompete established thin-film technologies. Although progress has been related mostly to the short-term performance of devices, very little attention has been paid so far to their long-term implications. In the past 2 years, there has been a push to understand further the mechanisms that drive stability in PSCs, with rapid progress towards stable devices in the long-term.

This symposium explores fundamental questions and challenges, focusing on the material’s properties that make perovskites so remarkable, and the current understanding of the PSC device physics. Finally, there is a designated session on the progress of long-term stability, and the evolution towards modules, in order to provide an outlook on how close PSCs are to commercialization.

devices energy generation laser lighting morphology photovoltaic semiconducting standards