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Terry Chien-Jen Yang is in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore.
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Samuel D. Stranks is in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK.
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The solar-energy revolution has been powered by silicon for decades, but conventional ‘single junction’ solar cells made from crystalline silicon are approaching their practical limits. The best laboratory-scale devices can convert about 28% of sunlight into electricity, close to the maximum efficiency of about 29% that is thought to be possible for cells of this type¹. Writing in Nature, Artuk et al.² report innovations that enable a different solar-cell design — a ‘triple junction’ device in which materials called perovskites are used in combination with silicon — to achieve greater than 30% efficiency. Their work brings such devices closer to fulfilling their long-anticipated potential of reaching efficiencies well beyond those that can be achieved using silicon alone.
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Nature 653, 33-35 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01149-9
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S.D.S. is a co-founder of Swift Solar, Inc.
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Read the paper: Triple-1 junction solar cells with improved carrier and photon management
Redirecting current solves a shadowy problem faced by perovskite solar cells
Solar cells that combine multiple perovskite layers surpass 30% efficiency
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