All-inorganic lead halide perovskites: a promising choice for photovoltaics and detectors

Recent years have witnessed a significant performance breakthrough in all-inorganic perovskite solar cells, but their power conversion efficiencies are still far lower than the theoretical limit and they also suffer from severe moisture instability. Based on the discussions on crystal structures, chemical bonds, and optical and electrical properties of all-inorganic perovskites, we have summarized their comprehensive applications in solar cells and detectors. The effects of monovalent and divalent ion doping, morphology, crystallization control and interface engineering on device performance and stability have been carefully evaluated. A narrow-bandgap CsPbI3 polycrystalline bulk film solar cell has achieved the highest power conversion efficiency of 18.4%, while a stable CsPbBr3 nanocrystal film is a more successful choice in UV-visible and high-energy ray detections. Finally, we call on boosting the performance and stability of solar cells and shortening the response time for tandem photovoltaic and high-speed dynamic detection applications, respectively.