How perovskites have the edge: Two-dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites form quantum wells by sandwiching inorganic-organic perovskite layers used in photovoltaic devices between organic layers. Blancon et al. show that if the perovskite layer is more than two unit cells thick, photogenerated excitons undergo an unusual but highly efficient process for creating free carriers that can be harvested in photovoltaic devices (see the Perspective by Bakr and Mohammed). Lower-energy local states at the edges of the perovskite layer facilitate dissociation into electrons and holes that are well protected from recombination. Science , this issue p. 1288 ; see also p. 1260
21 February 2018 in Journal of the American Chemical Society