Publication date: 22nd July 2026
Lead-halide perovskites have revolutionized optoelectronics owing to their remarkable defect tolerance and efficient charge transport. In contrast, lead-free perovskite-inspired materials (PIMs) often exhibit substantial structural disorder, deep defects, and pronounced charge localization, factors that continue to limit their performance in conventional photovoltaic applications.1
This talk explores how defects and disorder shape the properties of pnictogen-based PIMs. I will discuss strategies to understand and control defect landscapes through compositional engineering, including Sb–Bi alloying2 and mixed-halide approaches,3 and their impact on carrier dynamics and device performance.
Particular attention will be given to recent results showing that structural disorder can induce local symmetry breaking and enhance second harmonic generation, illustrating how phenomena often regarded as detrimental can generate new functionality.4 By connecting defects, disorder, electronic structure, microstructure and charge transport across multiple material families, a common framework emerges for understanding both the limitations and opportunities of lead-free semiconductors.5
Finally, I will show how these insights have contributed to the development of high-performance lead-free indoor photovoltaics6,7 while motivating applications beyond photovoltaics. The results suggest that the future of pnictogen-based perovskite-inspired semiconductors may lie not in replicating lead-halide perovskites, but in exploiting the unique properties that arise from their structural complexity.
The work is part of the Research Council of Finland Flagship Programme, Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN), decision number 346511. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101169056.
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