In a study published in Advanced Optical Materials, researchers at Vilnius University (VU) demonstrated perovskite-based laser structures that maintained stable performance over more than 400 million pulses. Their findings address one of the major challenges limiting the practical use of perovskites: their instability. These semiconductor materials could play an important role in next-generation optical technologies, but their tendency to degrade has long posed a challenge for researchers worldwide.

In some sense, perovskites can be compared to graphene. Like perovskites, graphene spent years being studied in labs because of its potential before industry eventually began using it. Today, it’s widely applied in solar energy, electronics and batteries. Perovskites may hold even greater potential, but they come with a major drawback: they’re highly unstable and degrade quickly in the presence of moisture.

Scientists are putting effort into figuring out how to overcome these hurdles and unlock perovskites’ potential. Among these researchers are Vilnius University doctoral student and junior researcher Abdul Mannan Majeed and Dr. Patrik Ščajev.