Perovskite solar cells have rapidly risen to the forefront of emerging photovoltaic technologies, exhibiting rapidly rising efficiencies. This is likely to continue to rise, but in the development of these solar cells there are unusual characteristics that have arisen, specifically an anomalous hysteresis in the current-voltage curves. We identify this phenomenon and show some examples of factors that make the hysteresis more or less extreme. We also demonstrate stabilized power output under working conditions and suggest that this is a useful parameter to present, alongside the current-voltage scan derived power conversion efficiency. We hypothesize three possible origins of the effect and discuss its implications on device efficiency and future research directions. Understanding and resolving the hysteresis is essential for further progress and is likely to lead to a further step improvement in performance.

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Organic-inorganic perovskites are attracting increasing attention for their use in high-performance solar cells. Nevertheless, a detailed understanding of charge generation, interplay of excitons and free charge carriers, and recombination pathways, crucial for further device improvement, remains incomplete. Here, we present an analytical model describing both equilibrium properties of free charge carriers and excitons in the presence of electronic subgap trap states and their time evolution after photoexcitation in CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3−x Cl x . At low fluences the charge-trapping pathways limit the photoluminescence quantum efficiency, whereas at high fluences the traps are predominantly filled and recombination of the photogenerated species is dominated by efficient radiative processes. We show experimentally that the photoluminescence quantum efficiency approaches 100% at low temperatures and at high fluences, as predicted by our model. Our approach provides a theoretical framework to understand the fundamental physics of perovskite semiconductors and to help in designing and enhancing the material for improved optoelectronic device operation.

Organometal trihalide perovskite solar cells offer the promise of a low-cost easily manufacturable solar technology, compatible with large-scale low-temperature solution processing. Within 1 year of development, solar-to-electric power-conversion efficiencies have risen to over 15%, and further imminent improvements are expected. Here we show that this technology can be successfully made compatible with electron acceptor and donor materials generally used in organic photovoltaics. We demonstrate that a single thin film of the lowtemperature solution-processed organometal trihalide perovskite absorber CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3-x Cl x , sandwiched between organic contacts can exhibit devices with power-conversion efficiency of up to 10% on glass substrates and over 6% on flexible polymer substrates. This work represents an important step forward, as it removes most barriers to adoption of the perovskite technology by the organic photovoltaic community, and can thus utilize the extensive existing knowledge of hybrid interfaces for further device improvements and flexible processing platforms.

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