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Methyl-ammonium lead iodide perovskite crystallizes in different structures depending on the temperature: orthorhombic, tetragonal and cubic. An important point to be considered is the effect of the microscopic properties of the different structures on the optical and photovoltaic properties. Using first principles we obtain the absorption coefficients that will determine the absorption of solar radiation. In order to analyze the contributions of the different atoms to the absorption coefficients we split them into a many-species expansion. Using a similar methodology we also split the efficiencies as a many-species expansion. It allows the contribution of the atomic species to be identified and quantified to the absorption coefficients and to the solar cell efficiency of the different phases. Additionally the effect of the cell thickness w is quantified.

The effect of 14 organic cations on the optical properties of the lead iodine perovskite is analyzed. The electronic and optical properties are obtained using first principles. The absorption coefficients are split into inter-atomic species components in order to quantify all of the contributions. For energies close to the bandgaps, the main contribution is from the Pb-Pb intra-species transitions. For higher energy this contribution is still important in addition to I-I and Pb-I contributions, and to the 3 and 4 species term. Almost all absorption properties are qualitatively similar. Furthermore, this absorption coefficient splitting also allows the optical characteristics that the substitution of Pb by another element should satisfy to be identified in order to reduce the toxicity because of Pb while maintaining a high absorption capacity.