Monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells offer a promising pathway to surpass the efficiency limits of single-junction photovoltaics. However, their performance, stability and scalability are constrained by the recombination layer, which needs to simultaneously enable efficient charge recombination, high optical transparency and robust interfacial chemistry. Existing indium-containing transparent conductive oxides raise concerns regarding cost and sustainability, whereas silicon-based tunnel junctions suffer from parasitic optical losses. Here we show that titanium oxynitride (TiOxNy) can serve as a multifunctional, indium-free recombination layer that reconciles these competing requirements. Conductive TiOxNy enables efficient vertical carrier recombination, suppresses lateral leakage and provides anchoring sites for self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) via a tridentate binding configuration. As a result, we achieve power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 33.3% for 1.0-cm2 devices and 30.6% for industrial-size (207.87 cm2) tandems, with enhanced operational stability. Our results establish TiOxNy as a scalable and sustainable interconnection strategy for tandem photovoltaics. The interconnected recombination layer is key to advance perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Cao et al. show that titanium oxynitride reconciles the requirements for recombination layers, improving the efficiency and stability for tandem solar cells and modules.

Antimony-based lead-free perovskite Cs3Sb2I9 suffers from poor formation of the two-dimensional layered phase, high defect density, and limited photovoltaic performance. Here, we reported a synergistic strategy combining SbI3 vapor-assisted annealing and ligand-free ultrafast femtosecond pulsed laser ablation of liquid precursor (PLALP) to regulate crystallization kinetics and defect chemistry. The SbI3 vapor-assisted annealing suppresses SbI3 volatilization and promotes the formation of high-quality layered Cs3Sb2I9 films. Meanwhile, Cs3Sb2I9 nanocrystals are generated through ligand-free PLALP to effectively passivate grain boundaries and non-radiative defects. As a result, the films exhibit enhanced crystalline, improved perovskite grain formation, reduced surface roughness, and suppressed defect states, leading to prolonged carrier lifetime and reduced non-radiative recombination. Consequently, the optimized devices delivered a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 6.54 mA/ cm2, an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.893 V, a fill factor (FF) of 59.76%, and a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.49%. Notably, the unencapsulated devices retain over 90% of their initial PCE after 1400 h of ambient storage based on intermittent photovoltaic measurements and exhibit reduced hysteresis as well as improved photostability under ambient conditions. This work provides a viable pathway for defect management and stability enhancement in lead-free perovskites.

Monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells represent a compelling strategy to surpass the efficiency limits of single-junction photovoltaics. However, the performance of these devices is often restricted by electrical and optical losses at the recombination layer (RL), the critical interface where charges from the top and bottom cells must recombine. Conventional RLs are constrained by high material cost, elemental scarcity, stability shortcomings, or complex processing, necessitating alternative strategies. Here, we introduce indium-free tantalum oxynitride (TaOxNy) as a multifunctional RL. It combines wide-band-gap transparency with low contact resistivity for efficient vertical charge transport and enables superior self-assembled monolayer (SAM) anchoring that yields a homogeneous dipole field, enhancing perovskite crystallinity and suppressing nonradiative recombination. Consequently, monolithic tandems incorporating this layer achieve a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 31.78% (certified 31.72%). Encapsulated devices retain over 80% of their initial efficiency after 1,500 h of continuous operation and 85.8% after 1,000 h of damp-heat testing.

Indium-based transparent conductive oxides are widely used as electrodes and recombination layers in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, yet their scalability is constrained by indium scarcity and sputtering-induced damage. We report high-efficiency and stable indium-free perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells enabled by reactive plasma deposited tin oxide (RPD-SnOx). For RPD-SnOx as the recombination layer, we achieved a certified efficiency of 33.6%. Fully indium-free tandems that used RPD-SnOx as both recombination layer and electrodes delivered a champion power conversion efficiency of 33.2% (1 square centimeter) and a minimodule with a certified efficiency of 31.0% (207.9 square centimeters). Dense and uniform self-assembled monolayer anchoring enabled by RPD-SnOx suppressed nonradiative recombination and reduced halide migration. Indium-free minimodules exhibited high thermal, damp-heat, and outdoor operational stability and retained 65% of their maximum initial efficiency after 105 days of outdoor operation.

Due to environmental concerns arising from the toxicity of lead-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs), developing efficient and stable lead-free perovskite solar cells has become a research hotspot. However, lead-free alternatives continue to struggle with high photovoltaic performance. In addition, despite the perovskite grain shape and structure plays a significant role in photon absorption, no significant dedicated research has been conducted to explore shape-driven photovoltaic properties of PSCs, so far. To fill this gap, we utilized COMSOL Multiphysics software to investigate the perovskite grain shape-modulated photovoltaic optimization aiming to systematically enhance the overall performance of lead-free all-perovskite tandem solar cells (APTSCs). Our findings proposed that perovskite grain with cylindrical shape exhibit excellent photovoltaic performance, as the single-junction lead-free devices with narrow and wide bandgap exhibited optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 31.67 % and 21.15 %, respectively. Furthermore, we successfully constructed 2T lead-free perovskite tandem solar cells by combining the optimized single-junctions and PCE value as high as 33.28 % was achieved. These results not only demonstrate the enormous potential of lead-free perovskite materials but also validate that perovskite grain shape is a crucial parameter for light trapping in solar absorber materials which has the potential to effectively overcome the current material's limitations and can boost the device efficiency of lead-free perovskite tandem devices.

Wide-bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have promising applications in tandem cells, offering a viable pathway to surpass the theoretical efficiency limits of single-junction photovoltaic devices. However, WBG perovskite with increasing bromide content suffers from inhomogeneous phase distribution and bulk defects, owing to the mismatched crystallization kinetics between halogen phases. Herein, we propose a synchronous halogen crystallization strategy utilizing a multifunctional additive, 4,4',4″-tricarboxyl triphenylamine (TTA), to modulate the bromine/iodine phase competitive crystallization. TTA preferentially coordinates with bromine-rich components and reduces its rapid crystallization, while simultaneously accelerating the crystallization of the iodine-rich phase, resulting in their synchronous crystallization. This approach also improves composition uniformity and film quality, which effectively suppresses non-radiative recombination and enhances phase stability under light irradiation and voltage bias. As a result, the TTA-modified device achieves a remarkable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.55% with an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.339 V. Moreover, the unencapsulated device retains 90% of its initial efficiency after 1050 h of storage in the ambient environment and exhibits an extended T90 lifetime of 750 h under ISOS-L-1 conditions. This work offers a new perspective for addressing inhomogeneous crystallization in mixed-halide perovskite and facilitates their integrated into tandem photovoltaics.

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are sensitive to the quality of the perovskite films, which typically require fabrication in inert atmospheres to avoid moisture-induced uncontrolled crystallization, thereby increasing manufacturing complexity and cost. Here, it is demonstrated that cesium iodide and zinc acetate suppress the formation of lead polyhalide intermediates and enable the rapid growth of three-dimensional perovskite in ambient air. This approach suppresses water-induced uncontrolled growth, leading to the formation of perovskite films with uniformly distributed grains and reduced trap density. With this approach, ambient-air-processed near-infrared perovskite LEDs with a peak external quantum efficiency of 20.2% and enhanced stability are demonstrated.

To address the recognition challenges caused by blurred state boundaries and the limitations of single monitoring modalities during aircraft skin laser paint stripping, this study proposes a multimodal data fusion method for state recognition based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and surface imaging. By constructing a synchronous monitoring platform, a dataset covering five key physical states, namely topcoat (Tc), topcoat-primer transition (Tc-Pr), primer (Pr), primer-substrate transition (Pr-As), and substrate damage (As), was established. The proposed gated weighted multimodal fusion network (PGMF-Net) employs SE-ResNet1D to capture variations in elemental composition features from the spectra and integrates ResNet18 to extract changes in surface morphology from the images. The experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms the single-modal methods as well as the compared early-fusion and late-fusion methods, achieving a recognition accuracy of 94.12% on the test set and an average accuracy of 94.87% in stratified cross-validation. The bootstrap-based confidence interval analysis further verifies the stability of this method under the current dataset conditions. Further analysis indicates that the single-spectrum model has difficulty effectively distinguishing coating transition states because different transition states contain identical or highly similar characteristic peak information. The single-vision model, however, shows insufficient sensitivity to subtle substrate damage, whereas multimodal fusion enables complementary representation of material composition information and surface morphological information. Experimental validation under different power conditions further confirms that the model outputs are generally consistent with the macroscopic morphological evolution observed on the sample surface. This method compensates for the limitations of traditional single-source monitoring and provides a methodological foundation for online monitoring and state feedback during the laser paint stripping process.

Self-assembled molecules (SAMs) represent a highly promising hole transport layer material for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, their energy level mismatching, instability with perovskite, and with the substrate often influence their potential as an optimal hole transport layer (HTLs). Molecular engineering offers significant room to effectively tailor the specific component of SAMs molecules, which enhances their stability as well as carrier extraction ability in photovoltaic devices. To take advantage of this, we systematically designed four novel carbazole-based SAMs, via careful engineering of various substituents and linkers. This research aims to improve the electronic properties and interface interactions between SAMs and perovskite layers. Furthermore, we employed density functional theory (DFT) to analyze the effects of molecular design on energy levels, dipole moments, and interfacial polarization, for optimizing the hole extraction and minimizing the recombination losses. Our results demonstrated that the newly designed SAMs, particularly MeO-BzPhPACz, significantly outperformed previous counterparts in terms of photovoltaic efficiency, by achieving a remarkable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 28.8% in single-junction PSCs. These findings highlight the potential of molecular engineering in designing organic HTLs to enhance the performance of PSCs, offering insights into the future development of efficient and stable inverted PSCs.

Metal halide materials have attracted widespread attention due to their excellent photophysical properties, particularly in the field of radiation detection. However, their practical applications are often restricted due to their inherent crystalline nature, which often leads to brittleness and poor processability. Herein, we proposed a novel strategy to prepare polymerized manganese(II) halides (MnP) as a new class of plastic scintillator. The self-adaptive host-guest cationic motifs provided high conformational flexibility and numerous hydrogen bonding sites, which facilitated the polymerization process. The MnP films exhibited superior processability and high transmittance (>90%). By tuning the guest cations, the crystalline manganese(II) halides achieved a near unity photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). The MnP films and the crystalline manganese(II) halides showcased outstanding X-ray scintillation performances, demonstrating a detection limit of 0.012 mu Gy(air) s(-1) and a high spatial resolution of 13.06 lp mm(-1). This approach is expected to provide an alternative to advancing the development of high-performance plastic scintillators.

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates are susceptible to barely visible impact damage (BVID) under low-energy bird-strike-like conditions. However, in previous studies, most damage evaluations for BVID were limited to a single scale. In this work, a multiscale characterization and evaluation method integrating the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the CRITIC weighting method was proposed to investigate the damage evolution of CFRP laminates under low-energy impacts (approximately 12-33 J). Delamination area (SDa), indentation depth (PD), surface crack aspect ratio (RA), energy dissipation, and compression-after-impact (CAI) strength were analyzed based on phased-array ultrasonic C-scanning, 3D optical profilometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that PD, SDa, and energy dissipation increased from 108.73 μm to 213.93 μm, from 228.6 mm2 to 695.8 mm2, and from 5.96 J to 21.40 J, respectively, with increasing impact energy. Meanwhile, CAI strength decreased from 202.2 MPa to 118.9 MPa, with a maximum degradation rate of 41.16%. A critical transition was observed in the medium-to-high energy range, where delamination growth gradually plateaued, while intralaminar cracking and fiber fracture became increasingly dominant. The proposed framework enables quantitative grading of BVID severity and provides a practical basis for assessing residual damage in impacted CFRP laminates.

Anode-free Li batteries employing ultra-thick cathodes offer exceptional volumetric energy density, yet are hindered by side reactions and limited Li reservoirs. This study develops an anode-free pouch cell using a 3D-printed ultra-thick cathode (120 mg cm‒2) and a dual-salt/dual-solvent electrolyte. The electrolyte forms an anion-rich solvation structure, fostering an elastic-plastic solid-electrolyte interphase layer that enables highly reversible Li plating/stripping on bare Cu current collectors and stable prolonged cycling, even under low temperature conditions. The configuration delivers energy densities of 1,308 Wh L‒1 and 424 Wh kg‒1, alongside a remarkable areal capacity of 19.11 mAh cm‒2. This work establishes a scalable and cost-effective technical route for high-energy, safe anode-free batteries, which is expected to expedite their commercialization in electric aviation and the fast-growing low-altitude economy.

In this study, a PWF/rGO@PVA photocatalytic membrane with high stability and reusability was successfully prepared by employing a blending-coating method. Through the innovative introduction of high thermal conductivity rGO, the membrane achieved enhanced photothermal conversion, which facilitates molecular diffusion and reduces reaction energy barriers. Simultaneously, rGO acts as an electron bridge to promote charge separation and suppress carrier recombination. With an optimal photocatalyst content of 5 wt%, the PWF/rGO@PVA membrane exhibited excellent degradation rates of 0.0112 min-1 and 0.0101 min-1 under UV and visible light respectively, and maintained over 70% removal efficiency after five cycles. Selective laser texturing was then applied to the membrane surface, achieving degradation rates of 96.7% and 93.6% under UV and visible light respectively, and maintained over 90% removal efficiency after five cycles. On one hand, the created periodic microstructures increased specific surface area which provided additional adsorption sites and reaction interfaces and significantly enhanced the anti-reflective properties of the membrane surface. On the other hand, the laser texturing process disrupts the hydrogen bonding network of PVA, thereby suppressing warpage deformation during photocatalytic cycling and improving structural stability. Finally, the dynamic water experiments verified that at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, the photocatalytic membrane retained over 80% degradation efficiency and maintained high photocatalytic stability in dynamic water environments with varying pH and the presence of inorganic anions.

With the rapid advancement of electronic devices toward miniaturization and high frequency, traditional screen printing and co-firing ceramic methods are encountering challenges due to their complexity and limited adaptability to three-dimensional structures. In this work, we introduce an integrated method for fabricating dielectrics and metals using stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing. BaTiO3 capacitors exhibit stable low-frequency performance (fluctuation < 3.4%, dissipation factor of 0.127 @ 10 kHz) and high-frequency resonance (peak impedance of 4944 Omega @ 45.1 MHz). Structural-integrated 3D printing reduces the number of manufacturing steps by approximately 40% and facilitates complex electrodes. Despite slight capacitance differences between simulations and prototypes, this technology enables rapid prototyping for 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), and wearable biosensors, providing tailored solutions for high-frequency systems.

Aiming at the problem of rounded and blunt cutting edge caused by CVD of diamond coating, this work addresses the engineering feasibility of nanosecond laser ablation for re-sharpening the helix peripheral cutting edge of diamond coated end mills. A novel tilting laser conformal scanning strategy was proposed and implemented on a self-built helical feed laser profiling ablation device for precision partial removal of diamond coating on the rake face side to achieve edge sharpening. Experimental and simulation study revealed the key role of laser tilting ablation played in the local removal of thin diamond coating with a desired depth and width, and a typical laser fluence of 1.53 J/cm(2) was selected to get an ablation width of similar to 38 mu m and depth of similar to 12 mu m. The cross-sectional curves extracted from the ablation trails showed engineering acceptable consistency and repeatability. The cutting edge radius of the laser treated endmill coated with a diamond film was reduced from similar to 25.6 mu m to similar to 6.6 mu m, which was about 74 % smaller than the initial state. The residual diamond coating showed no signs of deterioration, according to an analysis of the laser-ablated surface shape and chemical composition. To verify the laser sharpening effect, the total cutting force was confirmed to be reduced by over 20 % for milling carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRPs) material.

Achieving efficiencies beyond 40% with perovskite/silicon tandems hinges on conquering the challenge of interfacial recombination without inducing deleterious trade‐offs in charge extraction or stability. Herein, a steric‐complementary synergistic strategy (SCSS) is introduced that resolves this dilemma using a molecular dyad of piperazine (Pip + ) and phenethyl ammonium (PEA + ) cations. It is demonstrated that the compact Pip + cation infiltrates and neutralizes deep‐level surface defects inaccessible to larger molecules, while its bulkier PEA + counterpart co‐assembles into a robust, hydrophobic canopy that shields the interface from environmental stressors. This cooperative architecture synergistically suppresses trap‐state density and mitigates resistive losses, simultaneously enhancing charge extraction and device stability. Consequently, the tandem devices achieve a certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 32.12%. These tandems also exhibit exceptional operational stability, retaining over 80% of their initial efficiency after 1000 h of continuous one sun illumination under maximum power point tracking. This work establishes that engineering interfaces with sterically mismatched, functionally complementary molecules is a potent strategy, providing a clear pathway toward next‐generation tandem photovoltaics that are both highly efficient and truly durable.

The intricate thermal phenomena including thermotropic deformation and thermal blooming effect inside the cavity of a twelve-kilowatt power laser processing head were thoroughly investigated using COMSOL Multi-physics software. By constructing the mapping relationship between the wavefront aberration/focal plane position maps of collimating and focusing lenses and the thermal effects, the influence laws on lens body/coating deformations and thermally induced deformations of the clamping mechanism for the lens surface temperature were achieved and visualized, as well as how these deformations further altered the beam quality and wavefront. Meanwhile, the experimental verification based on the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor ensured the accuracy of the simulation results. In addition, it was also explored that controlling the gas flow rate in the cavity in the range of 0.13 m/s-0.15 m/s under a helium environment can effectively alleviate the focal plane shift caused by the thermal blooming effect. These findings are of practical significance for optimizing the processing quality of high-power laser, especially in controlling thermal effect.

Conformal deposition of perovskite on fully textured silicon bottom cells using low-cost solution processing remains challenging, limiting the process compatibility and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Herein, this challenge through synergetic engineering of the perovskite composition and tunneling recombination junction (TRJ) is addressed. The utilization of wide bandgap perovskite with high cesium content and silicon heterojunction (SHJ) bottom cell with hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) TRJ is found to enable conformal perovskite on fully textured SHJ bottom cells using solution processing. A remarkable PCE of 33.38% (certified 32.94%) is achieved for the tandem, featuring a record short-circuit current density of 21.21 mA cm-2. The tandem displays excellent stability, retaining 80% of its initial efficiency after 2324 h of operation at maximum power point (AM 1.5G, 25 °C).

Passivating defects at the wide-bandgap perovskite/C60 interface without impeding interfacial charge transport can effectively enhance the efficiency of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells (TSCs). Herein, we study the impact of benzene-derivative ligands with elaborately modulated binding strength and acidity on wide-bandgap perovskites for high-performance perovskite/silicon TSCs. Specifically, the acidity/alkalinity and binding strength are preliminarily tuned using different functional groups of -PO₃H₂, -COOH, and -NH₂, and further finely adjusted by altering the chain lengths between the benzene ring and the functional groups. The results show that strong binding is indispensable for effectively suppressing voltage loss. However, the commonly used benzylphosphonic acid (BPPA) for firm surface binding exhibits too strong acidity that can etch the perovskite surface, resulting in halide-vacancy defects and pronounced hysteresis. Increasing the side chain length of BPPA to (2-phenylethyl)phosphonic acid not only enables a suitable acid dissociation constant (pKa) to avoid acid-induced etching but also achieves robust anchoring to the perovskite surface with a parallel adsorption orientation, which reduces the charge transport barrier at the interface. These properties enable strong-adsorption surface termination (SAST) of the perovskite surface while preventing acid-induced etching. As a result, the SAST strategy achieves a remarkable efficiency of 32.13% (certified 31.72%) for hysteresis-free perovskite/silicon TSCs.

Tin-halide perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) have garnered significant attention due to their exceptional potential in achieving high-performance and eco-friendly light-emitting devices. Tin-halide PeLEDs have recently achieved notable breakthroughs in device efficiency, spectral tunability, and long-term operational stability. However, the facile oxidation of Sn2+ and rapid crystallization kinetics have substantially constrained their further development. The oxidation of Sn2+ and fast crystallization of the perovskite layer lead to a p-doping nature and high defect densities, which result in low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and unbalanced charge injection. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the oxidation and crystallization processes is key to the further advancement of tin-halide PeLEDs. In this review, we discuss the basic properties of tin-halide perovskites. A comprehensive analysis of the fundamental mechanisms underlying the efficiency limitations and stability issues in these devices is provided. Subsequently, we present the latest advances in achieving efficient and stable operation, which provides a clear set of design rules for the development of high-efficiency and stable tin-halide PeLEDs. The remaining challenges and perspectives toward developing high-efficiency and stable optoelectronic devices are also discussed, with the aim of optimizing the PLQY, emission wavelength control, balanced charge injection, and commercialization.