Preface

Perovskite materials are attracting increasing attention from condensed matter physicists and the materials science community because of their potential applications in energy, storage, solar cells, and sensing/actuating devices. In perovskitecentered transition metal oxides, the strong interaction between lattice, charge, spin, and/or orbital degrees of freedom provides an excellent playground for adjusting their physical properties. This book introduces the phenomenon and physics of multifunctional perovskite materials.

The book covers many of the exciting areas in multifunctional perovskite materials and applications. It is organized into three sections. Section 1 (Chapters 1–6) discusses various perovskite materials and their synthesis, characterization, and interesting physiochemical properties. Section 2 (Chapters 7–12) presents recent advances in perovskites for solar cells. Finally, Section 3 (Chapters 13–16) focuses on multifunctional materials, including Heusler alloys, metal halides, and hybrid perovskites as well as their applications.

This book is an invaluable resource for researchers, scientists, and academicians working in energy, physics, chemistry, and materials. It is also a source of excellent information for graduate students. I trust that the readers will find this book both enjoyable as well as educationally rewarding. We hope this book contributes in some way to the understanding of the diverse aspects of multifunctional perovskite materials.

We thank Ms. Maja Bozicevic and Mr. Filip Lovricevic from IntechOpen who initiated this book and did a great deal of work to bring it to completion. Finally, we thank all the authors who contributed their informative and in-depth chapters, which made this book a reality.

> **Poorva Sharma, Ph.D. (Physics) and Ashwini Kumar, Ph.D. (Physics)** Associate Professor, Luzhou Vocational and Technical College, Luzhou, China

Section 1

Perovskite Materials

and Characterization

**1**

Section 1
