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Nature Reviews Materials volume 10, pages 335–354 (2025)
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Photovoltaic (PV) technology is crucial for the transition to a carbon-neutral and sustainable society. In this Review, we provide a comprehensive overview of PV materials and technologies, including mechanisms that limit PV solar-cell and module efficiencies. First, we introduce the PV effect and efficiency losses within the framework of the Shockley–Queisser model for solar-to-electrical power conversion. However, all PV technologies fall short of these idealizations in various aspects, from incomplete sunlight absorption to the loss of photocurrent and photovoltage caused by the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers in the cells. Approaching the efficiency limits of PV technology requires material innovations and device designs that minimize these losses. Solar-cell research and development presents several solutions to these problems that are intimately related to the properties of the specific PV materials. To increase efficiencies beyond the Shockley–Queisser limit (around 33%) for a single junction, research has focused on producing multi-junction solar cells. Although these cells do provide higher efficiencies, there are differences in performance between individual cells and full modules in single-junction technologies when integrated into multi-junction configurations, highlighting the challenges in moving from laboratory experiments to commercial products.
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P.K.N. and B.K.P. acknowledge support from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India, under project RTI 4007. P.K.N. also acknowledges support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India, via the Swarna Jayanti Fellowship and Challenge Awards 2021 (project Advancement towards Stable and Highly Efficient Solar cell based on Halide perovskite (ASHESH)). T.K., G.Y. and Y.Y. acknowledge funding by the Helmholtz Association via the Programme Oriented Funding (POF) IV funding, via the project Beschleunigter Transfer der nächsten Generation von Solarzellen in die Massenfertigung — Zukunftstechnologie Tandem‐Solarzellen, via the project SolarTap, via the Helmholtz.AI project AI-driven Instantaneous Solar cell Property Analysis (AISPA), as well as by the DFG (the German Research Foundation) via the project Correlating defect densities with recombination losses in halide-perovskite solar cells. D.C. thanks the Weizmann Institute’s IES (Institute for Environmental Sustainability, formerly SAERI) and the Minerva Center for Self Repairing Systems for Energy and Sustainability for support.
IMD-3 Photovoltaik, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Thomas Kirchartz, Genghua Yan & Ye Yuan
Faculty of Engineering and CENIDE, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
Thomas Kirchartz
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India
Brijesh K. Patel & Pabitra K. Nayak
Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel
David Cahen
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All authors researched data for the article. D.C., T.K. and P.K.N. contributed substantially to discussion of the content. D.C., T.K. and P.K.N. wrote the article. All authors reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.
Correspondence to Thomas Kirchartz, David Cahen or Pabitra K. Nayak.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Reviews Materials thanks Martin Green and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Commercial module data for CdTe: https://www.firstsolar.com/en-Emea/Products/Series-7
Commercial module data for CIGS: https://miasole.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/MiaSole_brochure_final_2022.pdf
Commercial module data for c-Si: https://aikosolar.com/en/aiko-delivers-industry-leading-solar-modules/
Commercial module data for HaP: https://www.renshinesolar.com/
Commercial module data for triple-junction OPV: https://www.heliatek.com/en/products/heliasol/
Commercial OPV-based tandems: https://www.printedelectronicsnow.com/contents/view_breaking-news/2016-02-08/heliatek-sets-new-opv-world-record-efficiency-of-132/
Installation capacity of PV as of early 2025: https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/solar-2025-outlook/
Module costs as a proportion of PV system costs: https://www.nrel.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/solar-installed-system-cost.html
Percentage of c-Si modules on the market: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/publications/studies/photovoltaics-report.html
Solar cells developed from float-zone silicon: https://www.energieforschung.de/en/home/project-insights/2019/efficient-solar-cells-developed-from-float-zone-silicon
TOPCon design as the expected successor of the PERC cell: https://www.vdma.org/international-technology-roadmap-photovoltaic
US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) record efficiencies of cells: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html
US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) record efficiencies of modules: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/module-efficiency.html
The difference between the electrostatic potentials at short circuit between the electron- and hole-collecting contacts, a major contributor to the selectivity of the device.
This principle is a consequence of the first law of thermodynamics, which states that the equilibrium rate of every microscopic process must be identical to the equilibrium rate of its inverse process.
The highly doped part of a classical p–n homojunction crystalline-Si solar cell, which is a crucial part of classical solar-cell designs such as the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC); it is notably absent in designs such as silicon heterojunction solar cells as well as in all thin-film solar cells.
Gradual change in the bandgap of a multinary absorber material.
(HaP). Materials with a A+B2+X–3 stoichiometry, where A is a large monovalent cation — either inorganic, such as caesium (Cs) or organic, mostly methylammonium (MA) or formamidinium (FA) — X is a halide, mostly iodide or bromide, and B is, for high-efficiency devices, still exclusively Pb.
Junctions between two different semiconductors.
A method in module fabrication where line cuts are made through part or all the deposited stack on a substrate to isolate adjacent front and back contacts and to create an electrically conductive connection between one cell’s back contact and the adjacent cell’s front contact.
Material wasted during the ingot and wafer-slicing process.
The total expected cost of electricity produced divided by the total amount of electricity that is expected to be generated over the lifetime predicted for the specific technology and system.
An integrated stack of solar cells, normally consisting of absorber layers that cover different light-absorption ranges.
Small-molecule acceptors replacing the widely used fullerenes to provide electron-accepting and electron-conducting pathways.
Strategy to reduce the defect density or the recombination activity of defects in the bulk or at the surfaces of semiconductors by chemical and physical modification.
The only strictly unavoidable recombination mechanism, the inverse of absorption. Because of the detailed balance principle, it must be allowed if absorption is allowed; hence it can only be avoided by having a transparent (that is, non-absorbing) solar cell, thus eliminating its photovoltaic function.
Junctions between each pair of sub-cells of a two-terminal multi-junction (tandem) solar cell, at which current continuity requires electrons and holes to recombine, often by tunnelling from the conduction band to the valence band between two highly doped semiconductors.
The ability to support the flow of electrons to the electron contact (and holes to the hole contact) and to suppress their flows towards the respective ‘wrong’ contact.
Photovoltaic cell with a single absorber layer and a single absorption threshold. This situation is also one of the assumptions of the Shockley–Queisser model.
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Kirchartz, T., Yan, G., Yuan, Y. et al. The state of the art in photovoltaic materials and device research. Nat Rev Mater 10, 335–354 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00784-4
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