Metastability-driven burn-in in perovskite and organic solar cells

doi:10.1016/j.actphy.2026.100307

Metastability-driven burn-in in perovskite and organic solar cells

2026-04-20

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DOI：10.1016/j.actphy.2026.100307

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Early-time performance degradation, commonly referred to as burn-in, is a defining stability challenge for solution-processed photovoltaic technologies. Both perovskite solar cells and organic photovoltaics exhibit pronounced performance evolution during the initial stages of operation under environmental stressors such as illumination, electrical bias, and elevated temperatures. A fundamental difficulty in addressing burn-in is that it does not represent a single degradation mode, but rather a collective manifestation of metastable relaxation involving coupled structural, chemical, ionic, and electronic degrees of freedom. Solution-processed active layers are often kinetically trapped in high-free-energy states during rapid solvent evaporation and crystallization and therefore tend to reconfigure under operational conditions. Despite their distinct material compositions and device architectures between perovskite solar cells and organic photovoltaics, the early-stage degradation phenomena share notable conceptual similarities. Yet their mechanisms and temporal characteristics are usually examined within separate frameworks, which obscures the general physical principles governing early-stage instability and hinders cross-platform comparison. In this review, burn-in is examined as a manifestation of metastable relaxation in non-equilibrium semiconductor thin films. We comparatively analyze the thermodynamic driving forces and kinetic pathways governing early-time degradation in perovskite and organic solar cells. We demonstrate that in perovskite systems, burn-in is primarily associated with iono-electronic processes. The redistribution of mobile ionic species, coupled with dynamic defect chemistry and defect-mediated interfacial reconstruction, leads to the evolution of internal electric fields, charge extraction barriers, and non-radiative recombination centers, often giving rise to rapid, history-dependent, and partially reversible performance transients. Conversely, in organic photovoltaics, burn-in is predominantly dictated by morpho-electronic processes. The thermodynamic drive to minimize interfacial free energy and mixing enthalpy triggers phase instability, spinodal-like demixing, and molecular aggregation, which directly modulate intermolecular electronic coupling, energetic disorder, and charge-transfer state distributions, typically resulting in a monotonic and irreversible loss of short-circuit current or fill factor. By framing these diverse phenomena within a unified metastability framework, this review clarifies common physical principles underlying early-stage degradation. Furthermore, we highlight material-specific order parameters that control burn-in kinetics, critically evaluate current mitigation strategies, and emphasize the urgent need for standardized testing protocols specifically designed to capture early-stage transients. Ultimately, this review provides both a conceptual foundation and practical guidance for the rational mitigation of burn-in.

Keywords:

burn-in

metastability

perovskite solar cells

organic photovoltaics

degradation mechanisms

Metastability-driven burn-in in perovskite and organic solar cells

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