Application of perovskites in solar cells

Perovskites are attractive materials because of their excellent optoelectronic properties, such as high absorption coefficients, long carrier diffusion length, high tolerance factor, high carrier mobility, and tunable band gap. These properties have rendered perovskites to be used in various applications. Among them, application in solar cells has been extensively studied in the last two decades. Due to ease of fabrication, perovskite solar cells have led to a new potential energy source along with silicon counterparts for green technology. These solar cells have shown continuous improvement in both stability and device efficiency. So far, the highest recorded device efficiency is over 25%, which is still behind the theoretical efficiency limit. In this book chapter, the oxide and halide perovskites and their suitability in solar cells will be discussed. Brief and precise details of various types of Pb-based and Pb-free, all-inorganic emerging perovskites such as double perovskites, chalcogen-halogen hybrid perovskites, and their applications in perovskite solar cells will be presented. This chapter will also cover several issues associated with solar cells specifically, device performance and their solutions briefly.