A team of researchers from UC San Diego, Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, MIT and Argonne National Laboratory has reported new findings on perovskites, that could pave the way to developing low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells. Using high-intensity X-ray mapping, they explain why adding small amounts of cesium and rubidium salt improves the performance of lead-halide perovskites.

“Perovskites could really change the game in solar. They have the potential to reduce costs without giving up performance. But there’s still a lot to learn fundamentally about these materials,” said David Fenning, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego and co-senior author of the study. “We’re looking deeper into some of the state-of-the-art chemistries to understand what drives perovskite performance and why they work so well.”