Minimizing non-radiative recombination losses in perovskite solar cells

Non-radiative recombination losses hinder the performance of perovskite solar cells, preventing them from reaching the Shockley-Queisser limit. This Review systematically analyses the origin and impact of non-radiative recombination losses and highlights notable advances in their characterization and mitigation. Photovoltaic solar cells based on metal-halide perovskites have gained considerable attention over the past decade because of their potentially low production cost, earth-abundant raw materials, ease of fabrication and ever-increasing power-conversion efficiencies of up to 25.2%. This type of solar cells offers the promise of generating electricity at a more competitive unit price than traditional fossil fuels by 2035. Nevertheless, the best research-cell efficiencies are still below the theoretical limit defined by the Shockley-Queisser theory, owing to the presence of non-radiative recombination losses. In this Review, we analyse the predominant pathways that contribute to non-radiative recombination losses in perovskite solar cells and evaluate their impact on device performance. We then discuss how non-radiative recombination losses can be estimated through reliable characterization techniques and highlight some notable advances in mitigating these losses, which hint at pathways towards defect-free perovskite solar cells. Finally, we outline directions for future work that will push the efficiency of perovskite solar cells towards the radiative limit.