Since the report on long-term durable solid-state perovskite solar cell in 2012, perovskite solar cells based on lead halide perovskites having organic cations such as methylammonium CH3NH3PbI3 or formamidinium HC(NH2)2PbI3 have received great attention because of superb photovoltaic performance with power conversion efficiency exceeding 22 %. In this review, emergence of perovskite solar cell is briefly introduced. Since understanding fundamentals of light absorbers is directly related to their photovoltaic performance, opto-electronic properties of organo lead halide perovskites are investigated in order to provide insight into design of higher efficiency perovskite solar cells. Since the conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cell is found to depend significantly on perovskite film quality, methodologies for fabricating high quality perovskite films are particularly emphasized, including various solution-processes and vacuum deposition method.
Keywords: Lead halide; Organic inorganic hybrid; Perovskite; Photovoltaics; Solar cell.