Plenary
WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT HALIDE PEROVSKITES?

After 5 years of great excitement, it is starting to dawn on us that Halide Perovskites are mostly normal (inorganic) semiconductors. It is also becoming clear that one has to be careful to describe their behaviour with concepts from organic electronics and dye-sensitized solar cells. What remains remarkable is that a material with good to very good quality optoelectronic properties can result from a very fast, low temperature, solution preparation. If we can understand the reason(s) behind this, it may be possible to answer the question if this is a nasty trick of nature (Pb is unique) or if we can generalize to find other materials like these. I will first compare solar cells, made with Halide Perovskites to the other types of known solar cells, to note differences and similarities. Then I will consider apparent inconsistencies in physical materials properties, and, hopefully, be able to outline challenges for the future.

* also @ Bar-Ilan University; work done with Gary Hodes (Weizmann) and many others!

Benner et al., Adv. Mater. 2015

Sendner et al., Mater. Horiz. 2016