Organic–inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have achieved amazing progress in terms of power conversion efficiency (PCE), rising from 3.8% to over 23.3%. Owing to perovskites’ low nucleation and crystallization activation energy (56.6–97.3 kJ mol⁻¹), a range of low temperature and large-scale solution fabrication processes have been actively investigated for potential commercialization. Although many excellent research institutes and enterprises have emerged to advance commercialization of PSCs, the performance of devices which have large areas still lag much farther behind those of smaller lab scales. The performances of PSCs are predominantly determined by the quality of the perovskite film, which in turn, is controlled by the fabrication process. A comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the nucleation and growth process during perovskite crystallization is imperative for the further advancement of large-scale manufacturing of high quality perovskite films. This review summarizes recent advances in the commercialization of the PSCs market, and critically reviews promising large-scale solution manufacturing methods combined with their physical properties and relevant challenges with the crystallization thermodynamics and kinetics of perovskites. The hurdles and challenges of commercialization and possible approaches and solutions are discussed.

A novel laser-based apparatus is presented utilizing high harmonic radiation for visible pump–EUV probe experiments on ultrafast processes. True femtosecond temporal resolution is achieved by a monochromator making use of dedicated narrowband multilayer mirrors rather than gratings for selection of single harmonic orders in the photon energy range between 66 and 73 eV. First applications of this new light source for electron spectroscopy on gas phase helium and xenon demonstrate the selection of a single high harmonic order with the intensity ratio between the selected and its adjacent harmonic not exceeding 10:1. A pump–probe study of hot electron production on a solid Pt(110) surface yields a cross-correlation corresponding to a temporal system resolution of 100 fs.