Perovskite materials are the newest contender for breaking
the silicon ceiling in solar cell technology. But they don’t just absorb light.
Cambridge researchers have found they emit it like a laser, opening up an
entirely new field of applications.
Discovered 175 years ago in Russia’s mineral treasure box –
the Ural Mountains – and named after the mineralogist Count Lev Aleksevich von
Perovski, perovskite is fast becoming a ‘rock’ to be reckoned with. In 2013,
the use of perovskite materials in solar cells was voted as one of the
breakthroughs of the year by Science magazine; more recently, the Guardian
website declared that they “are the clean tech material development to watch
right now.”