Perovskite solar cells

A newer class of solar cell that is cheap to make and has caught up with silicon on efficiency.

China leads perovskite solar cells research, with 53.9% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; the United States is second with 6.5%.

FirstChina53.9%

SecondUnited States6.5%

8.2×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Highlight a country

Standings

1CNChina53.9%2USUnited States6.5%3KRSouth Korea4.6%4HKHong Kong4.0%5–6DEGermany3.9%5–6INIndia3.9%7GBUnited Kingdom2.3%8–9SASaudi Arabia2.1%8–9BDBangladesh2.0%10–11CHSwitzerland1.6%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 1,818 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

China

Everyone else, on a larger scale

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-area	Papers	First	Second	Third
Defect and surface passivation (incl. 2D/3D heterojunctions)	306	CNChina67.9%	USUnited States5.7%	KRSouth Korea4.2%
Hole-transport layers and self-assembled monolayers	278	CNChina61.8%	HKHong Kong6.9%	USUnited States4.3%
Perovskite composition, film growth and crystallisation	246	CNChina64.3%	KRSouth Korea7.5%	USUnited States5.9%
Lead-free and inorganic perovskites (incl. device simulation)	240	CNChina26.2%	INIndia17.3%	BDBangladesh12.1%
Electron-transport layers and buried interfaces	168	CNChina65.1%	KRSouth Korea7.0%	USUnited States3.9%
Large-area modules, flexible and indoor cells	163	CNChina56.4%	USUnited States5.9%	KRSouth Korea5.4%
Stability, degradation and encapsulation	161	CNChina42.2%	USUnited States20.5%	DEGermany6.4%
Tandem solar cells (perovskite-silicon, all-perovskite)	119	CNChina58.3%	USUnited States8.0%	HKHong Kong4.9%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change

CNChina 49.7%58.8%+9.1 pts

USUnited States 8.0%4.9%−3.1 pts

KRSouth Korea 4.8%4.4%−0.4 pts

HKHong Kong 3.7%4.2%+0.5 pts

DEGermany 5.1%2.5%−2.7 pts

INIndia 4.7%2.9%−1.8 pts

GBUnited Kingdom 2.6%1.9%−0.7 pts

SASaudi Arabia 1.4%2.8%+1.5 pts

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 971 papers in 2021–2023, 847 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (3,518), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

CNChina58.6%of 2026 papers have an author here
INIndia8.9%of 2026 papers have an author here
KRSouth Korea6.5%of 2026 papers have an author here
SASaudi Arabia5.6%of 2026 papers have an author here
USUnited States4.8%of 2026 papers have an author here

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess

CNChina 66.8%56.0%+10.8

USUnited States 11.4%7.2%+4.2

KRSouth Korea 11.4%7.8%+3.6

HKHong Kong 10.1%3.8%+6.3

INIndia 34.3%8.9%+25.4

Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

1CNShaanxi Normal University2.7%
2CNChinese Academy of SciencesGovernment lab2.6%
3HKCity University of Hong Kong2.1%
4CNWuhan University1.8%
5CNNorthwestern Polytechnical University1.5%
6KRSungkyunkwan University1.5%
7CNShanghai Jiao Tong University1.4%
8CNNankai University1.4%
9CNSouthern University of Science and Technology1.3%
10CNSoochow University1.3%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

Sector	All	CN	US	KR
Universities	79.8%	80.1%	79.2%	90.0%
Research facilities	15.4%	12.7%	19.9%	9.8%
Government labs	3.7%	5.9%	0%	0%
Companies	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

44.7% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

CNHKChina with Hong Kong144
CNUSChina with United States87
CHCNSwitzerland with China78
CNDEChina with Germany65
CNSAChina with Saudi Arabia53

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

Perovskite solar cells with atomically coherent interlayers on SnO2 electrodes
Nature, 2021KR
3,174citations
Pseudo-halide anion engineering for α-FAPbI3 perovskite solar cells
Nature, 2021CHCNKRSE
3,072citations
Efficient perovskite solar cells via improved carrier management
Nature, 2021KRUS
2,931citations
Controlled growth of perovskite layers with volatile alkylammonium chlorides
Nature, 2023KR
1,990citations
Inactive (PbI 2 ) 2 RbCl stabilizes perovskite films for efficient solar cells
Science, 2022CN
1,444citations

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

"perovskite solar cell" OR "perovskite photovoltaic" OR "perovskite solar module" OR "perovskite tandem"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Perovskite Materials and Applications; Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics; Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies; Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025: 18,158
In the top 10%: 1,818
In the top 1%: 184
Countries with credit: 76
Credit with no known country: 1.2%

Every one of the 2,296 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 13 were left out as not about perovskite solar cells

The most cited of those left out:

Ultrastable near-infrared perovskite light-emitting diodes364 citations
Non‐Radiative Recombination Energy Losses in Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells211 citations
Toward Stable and Efficient Perovskite Light‐Emitting Diodes207 citations
n-Type Organic and Polymeric Semiconductors Based on Bithiophene Imide Derivatives187 citations
Light management for perovskite light-emitting diodes167 citations
Perylene Diimide-Based Oligomers and Polymers for Organic Optoelectronics144 citations
Understanding and Suppressing Non‐Radiative Recombination Losses in Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells121 citations
Increasing donor-acceptor spacing for reduced voltage loss in organic solar cells114 citations
Green Perovskite Light‐Emitting Diodes with 200 Hours Stability and 16% Efficiency: Cross‐Linking Strategy and Mechanism98 citations
Emerging Study on Lead‐Free Hybrid Double Perovskite (CH 3 NH 3 ) 2 AgInBr 6 : Potential Material for Energy Conversion between Heat and Electricity83 citations
The Role of Self‐Assembled Monolayers in the Performance‐Stability Trade‐Off in Organic Solar Cells57 citations
Defect Passivating Hole Transporting Material for Large-Area and Stable Perovskite Quantum-Dot Light-Emitting Diodes24 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method