Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors Home > Press > Shedding light on perovskite films: Efficient materials for future solar cells - New model to determine photoluminescence quantum efficiency In terms of efficiency, perovskite solar cells have caught up on silicon solar cells, but some of their properties are not yet understood completely. CREDIT Markus Breig, KIT Abstract: Photovoltaics decisively contributes to sustainable energy supply. The efficiency of solar cells in directly converting light energy into electrical energy depends on the material used. Metal-halide perovskites are considered very promising materials for solar cells of the next generation. With these semiconductors named after their special crystal structure, a considerable increase in efficiency was achieved in the past years. Meanwhile, perovskite solar cells have reached an efficiency of up to 25.5 percent, which is quite close to that of silicon solar cells that are presently dominating the market. Moreover, the materials needed for perovskite solar cells are rather abundant. The solar cells can be produced easily and at low cost and they can be used for various applications. The theoretically achievable efficiency of perovskite solar cells is about 30.5 percent.