Photoexcitations and emission processes in organometal trihalide perovskites

Organometal halide perovskites have recently attracted widespread attention among scientists, as they combine the advantages of low-cost processability with strong light absorption, band-gap tunability from the near-infrared to the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, efficient light emission and charge transport. Such combination of features is unique among solution-processed materials and makes perovskites appealing for several optoelectronic applications, in particular those related to energy sustainability, which could help the advent of a new generation of low-cost but efficient solar cells and large-area light-emitting devices.This chapter reports a critical review of the efforts that scientists have made until now to understand the photophysics of organometal halide perovskites. We address the ongoing debate on the nature of the photoexcited species, namely the role played by free carriers and excitons, the determination of the exciton binding energy as a measure of the Coulomb interaction strength in these materials, the competition between radiative and non-radiative processes, the role and density of charge carrier traps, and last but not least a critical analysis of those phenomena at the base of laser action, highlighting the most relevant results and possible solutions to issues that still remain open.