Researchers from the Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have demonstrated a new method of fabricating perovskite-on-silicon tandem devices, using a transparent conductive adhesive (TCA) to combine the two cells. The scientists have developed devices with demonstrated efficiencies of 19.4%, and propose methods to bring that up to over 24% using existing technology.

While the efficiency is still well below the 28% record for a perovskite/silicon tandem cell set by Oxford PV , the UNIST group says its method is far simpler to manufacture than previous concepts. “It is meaningful to develop an attached tandem solar cell unlike the conventional tandem solar cell with stacked structure,” said UNIST’s In Young Choi, lead author of the study. “We have observed that the TCA effectively connects the different light-absorbing layers.”

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have found that in halide perovskites, creating defects takes more effort than restoring order. This finding may explain the remarkable properties of halide perovskites and help develop a new approach to controlling the properties of these and other materials.

Much about Halide perovskites still puzzles researchers; in particular, it has been unclear why they can contain relatively few defects, on the order of 1010 per cubic centimeter (that is, one defect for every trillion atoms, instead of the one to a hundred for every million, as in regular semiconductors). This concentration of defects rivals that of germanium crystals, among the cleanest solid-state man-made materials. Getting close to such a low defect concentration in the semiconductors used in today’s electronic devices requires enormous effort and ingenuity. In contrast, halide perovskites can be produced within a fraction of a second by mixing simple chemical salt solutions at near room temperature.