March 2026

Researchers at the University of California (UC Davis) and Empa have shown that single-crystal halide perovskites can reversibly change their lattice under above-bandgap light excitation and elastically return to their original structure when the light is removed. This light-driven, hysteresis-free lattice response highlights soft-lattice halide perovskites as promising candidates for light-controlled semiconductor and strain-engineered devices.

Mechanically and chemically modulated strain in monocrystalline halide perovskites (HPs) has already been shown to improve stability and phase purity, but the interplay between photoexcitation-driven lattice distortions, strong electron-phonon coupling, and A-site cation dynamics has not been fully clarified. In this study, transient lattice distortions were measured in single-crystal MAPbBr₃, FAPbBr₃, and CsPbBr₃ in response to above-bandgap light excitation using an X-ray probe to directly monitor structural changes. The measurements reveal reversible, hysteresis-free photoinduced lattice distortion: when light is applied, the internal lattice parameters shift, and when the light is turned off, the crystals recover their initial structure, and this cycle can be repeated many times. 

Solar wafer giant TCL Zhonghuan has announced it has completed its planned acquisition of DAS Solar.

TCL now owns 59.14% of DAS, having spent RMB 1.26 buying a mix of newly issued shares and existing shares. It controls a further 7.2% of voting rights that have been delegated to it by other shareholders. The deal gives DAS a valuation of just RMB 2.1 billion – a fraction of the RMB 8 billion it was once value at.

Researchers from Soochow University, National Taiwan University and Chang Gung University have developed a co-assembled self-assembled monolayer (SAM) strategy that tackles long-standing buried-interface limitations in inverted perovskite solar cells by combining the widely used Me-4PACz (Me4) with two newly designed donor–acceptor molecules, LYS-H and its fluorinated analogue LYS-F.

Image credit: NTU

In conventional inverted architectures, Me-4PACz SAMs serve as hole-selective layers but often suffer from solution aggregation, poor perovskite precursor wettability, insufficient interfacial contact and suboptimal crystallinity at the buried perovskite interface, all of which contribute to non-radiative recombination losses and limit device performance. To overcome these issues, the team designed LYS-H and LYS-F with a donor-acceptor backbone that strengthens the interfacial dipole, thereby facilitating more efficient hole extraction while introducing functional groups that can effectively passivate defects at the buried perovskite surface.

The countdown is on for Perovskite Connect 2026, returning to Berlin on 21–22 October 2026. If you’re planning to attend, now’s the perfect time to secure your place - the winter early-bird discount ends this Friday, 4 April 2026!

Take advantage of up to €500 off a single ticket, with even greater savings available for group packages.

According to reports, a consortium in Japan is conducting an agrivoltaics pilot project involving film-type perovskite solar cells installed above rice paddies.

The initiative aims to examine energy generation alongside agricultural production. The project involves five partners: Sekisui Solar Film, Terra Inc, Himawari Green Energy, Chiba University, and Chiba Bank. Sekisui Solar Film supplies the solar cells, while Terra handles construction and maintenance. Himawari Green Energy is assessing business feasibility, and Chiba University is providing the fields and evaluating impacts on farming and crops. Chiba Bank offers financial support. 

Hanwha Solutions has announced a plan to accelerate its solar technology roadmap, including a significant push into perovskite tandem solar cells. The South Korean energy and materials company approved a 2.4 trillion KRW (≈ US$1.6 billion) rights offering aimed at both strengthening its balance sheet and funding next-generation solar investments.

According to various reports, approximately 1.5 trillion KRW of the raised funds will go toward debt repayment and the remaining funds are earmarked for solar innovation and capacity expansion:

• 100 billion KRW will fund a perovskite tandem pilot production line.
• 800 billion KRW will support mass production expansion, including building gigawatt-scale facilities and expanding TOPCon (Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact) cell output.

Researchers from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fudan University have developed a unified colloidal-chemistry strategy that pushes all-perovskite tandem solar cells (TSCs) close to 30% efficiency, while directly targeting the crystallization mismatch between their subcells.

Tandem solar cells stack two photoactive layers so that each subcell absorbs a different portion of the solar spectrum, enabling higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) than single-junction devices. All-perovskite TSCs, which use perovskite absorbers in both the wide-bandgap (WBG) and narrow-bandgap (NBG) subcells, are particularly attractive and have a theoretical efficiency potential above 40%. In practice, however, their performance has been limited by mismatched crystallization kinetics: the WBG and NBG perovskites form and grow via different pathways, which can lead to phase segregation, non-uniform grain growth, and a high density of defects at interfaces and grain boundaries.

GCL System Integration Technology (GCL SI), a company under the GCL Technology Holdings clean‑energy group, together with Soochow University and Yangzhou University, recently initiated drafting group standards for testing and performance verification of 3-terminal crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells.

GCL SI said that 3-terminal perovskite tandem technology based on back-contact (BC) cells currently faces industrialization challenges due to a lack of unified testing standards, leading to poor data comparability and inconsistent performance evaluation. The proposed standards will address issues such as unique electrode configurations, spectral mismatch, and stability testing by defining testing procedures, parameter definitions, and data processing rules.

Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Technical University of Munich (TUM), DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchroton), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and additional institutes recently demonstrated how rapid temperature swings drive degradation in state-of-the-art wide-bandgap perovskite and tandem solar cells - and how molecular design can significantly improve their resilience.

The team investigated triple‑cation wide‑bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells with a bandgap of about 1.68 eV and a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.31% in 0.05 cm² devices, employing dual passivation based on 3‑fluorophenethylammonium iodide (3‑F‑PEAI) and ethylenediamine diiodide (EDAI₂). Under rapid solar‑thermal cycling with a temperature change rate of around 10 °C/min, they found that device degradation is largely independent of the initial passivation strategy and instead follows a universal two‑regime pattern. The first regime is a pronounced burn‑in phase, during which the cells can lose about 60% of their relative performance over the first cycles, followed by a second regime of steadier degradation where photovoltaic parameters fluctuate with temperature but evolve more slowly.

According to reports, diamond grinding wheel and diamond wire maker Sanchao Advanced Materials plans to invest RMB 240 million (almost USD$35 million) to build a solar cell R&D and experimental base focused on perovskite-silicon tandem technology.

With a 2-year construction period, the facility will adopt a 2-terminal perovskite-silicon tandem architecture and be developed in 2 phases. Phase I (12 months) targets tandem cell efficiency above 34% and a module efficiency of 28%, while Phase II (24 months) aims for a module efficiency of 30% and verification of the mass-production process.