Prof. Michael Saliba, Head of the Institute for Photovoltaics (ipv) of the University of Stuttgart, is one of the world’s leading researchers of perovskite. This special class of material is currently regarded as a “rising star” among semiconductors. Perovskites are highly efficient, cost-effective, lightweight, easy to produce, and a promising basis for new photovoltaic technologies. In the run-up to the Nature conference “Advancing Perovskite-Based Photovoltaics”, which will take place at the University of Stuttgart from September 29 to October 1, 2025, Saliba explains why they are so valuable, what they can achieve, and what challenges perovskite research faces.
Professor Saliba, you were one of the first to complete a doctorate on perovskites at Oxford in 2014 and consider them to be a disruptive innovation. What is the role of perovskites in science?
No other material has seen such a rapid rise as perovskite. Typical perovskite crystal structures were first described in 1839—in the form of mineral finds. However, researchers discovered a variant of perovskites only much later in the mid-2010s. Today we know that these crystals are particularly suitable as semiconductors and therefore as a material for the development of a new generation of solar cells, among other things. Accordingly, perovskites are boosting photovoltaics worldwide. Incidentally, it was a scientist at the University of Stuttgart—Dieter Weber—who laid the foundations for this with his research back in 1978.
Perovskites are boosting photovoltaics worldwide.
Prof. Michael Saliba
What special properties do perovskites have?
Perovskites are relatively tolerant to impurities and can absorb a lot of sunlight with a low layer thickness. Above all, their production is uncomplicated, cost-effective, and energy-saving.
What is the advantage over manufacturing conventional semiconductors from silicon?
Most classic semiconductors require high temperatures for production. These can exceed 1,000°C. Clean room conditions are also often required. By contrast, perovskite crystals readily dissolve in special solvents. The perovskite ink produced in this way can then be sprayed, applied, or printed onto a surface like a paint – methods that are used in printing technology. When the solvent evaporates, an ultra-thin layer of perovskite a hundert times thinner than a human hair remains.
You combine both materials, right?
Exactly. We work with tandem solar cells. They consist of a perovskite layer and an underlying layer of silicon. Perovskites are particularly good at converting blue sunlight while silicon converts light in the red and infrared range. This allows us to make optimal use of the properties of both materials and generate considerably more energy from sunlight than with simple silicon cells. Tandem solar cells now achieve an efficiency of more than 34%, which greatly exceeds the efficiency of conventional silicon cells around 27%.
You want to bring perovskites out of the laboratory and into industrial production. What challenges do you still have to overcome?
What is easy to produce is, of course, also easy to destroy. This means one of the biggest challenges is to stabilize perovskites in the long term. And we are working hard on this. Not just my team but thousands of research groups worldwide. Here in Stuttgart, we are primarily looking for the optimum material mixture to stabilize perovskites against environmental influences: moisture, oxygen, and, ironically, light.
One of the biggest challenges is to stabilize perovskites in the long term.
Prof. Michael Saliba
Why light?
Perovskites can actually be highly sensitive to light. This is still a key issue in order to make this type of solar cell market-ready for widespread use. Too much light can cause the material to change and the solar cell to work less efficiently, especially when it is damp or hot.
What application scenarios are there beyond photovoltaics?
Perovskites can be used in detectors for medical technology, for example for diagnostics. Imaging processes such as positron emission tomography (PET) require special semiconductor crystals that can absorb high-energy light. Another major field of application is lighting, for example for displays. Next year, together with our colleagues from the Institute of Space Systems, Prof. Stefanos Fasoulas and Prof. Sabine Klinkner, we are sending our perovskite solar cells into space for the first time to verify their suitability for future satellite power applications. We believe that perovskites are particularly resistant to the harsh conditions found there.
Has industry already discovered perovskite for itself?
Industry has a great interest in these materials. Not only large companies such as Merck AG with whom we are in contact. Many start-ups are also emerging, especially in the USA. A growing market for perovskites is emerging in Asia, particularly in China. And I am convinced that we in Germany also meet all the conditions to turn perovskite technologies into a flourishing industry. A good start-up environment like the one we have in Stuttgart can certainly support this. My colleague Claudiu Mortan and I are advancing this effort with our start-up Perosol, a spin-off from the University of Stuttgart.
What motivates you personally?
We want to make green solar cells for green energy that leaves a relatively small CO2 footprint. The clock is ticking. Our planet continues to heat up. Being able to take our fundamental research in chemistry and physics from the laboratory scale to the rooftops and thus make a major contribution to combating climate change is motivational for me and the team and drives us forward.
We want to make green solar cells for green energy that leaves a relatively small CO2 footprint.
Prof. Michael Saliba
Expert contact
Prof. Michael Saliba has headed the Institute for Photovoltaics (ipv) at the University of Stuttgart since 2020 and works at Forschungszentrum Jülich. Further positions in his scientific career included the Technical University of Darmstadt, the University of Fribourg, the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and the University of Oxford. He has received, among others, the Helmholtz High Impact Award, the Rising Star Award, an ERC-Starting Grant, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Stuart R. Wenham Young Professional Award. Saliba is one of the most cited scientists in his field worldwide.
Contact:
Prof. Michael Saliba, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Photovoltaics
Tel: +49 711 685-67140, E-Mail
Dr. Claudiu Mortan, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Photovoltaics
Tel: +49 711 685-67151, E-mail
From September 29 to October 1, 2025, the “Who’s Who” of international perovskite science will meet at the University of Stuttgart for the Nature Conference “Advancing Perovskite-Based Photovoltaics”. What progress and challenges are there in the development of highly efficient solar cells based on perovskites? How can innovative PV technologies be transferred from basic research to practical application? These and other questions will be discussed by world-leading scientists and engineers from industry.
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