Radiation Stability of Mixed Tin-Lead Halide Perovskites: Implications for Space Applications: Article No. 111232

Brandon Durant, Hadi Afshari, Shashi Sourabh, Vishal Yeddu, Matthew Bamidele, Satyabrata Singh, Bibhudutta Rout, Giles Eperon, Do Kim, Ian Sellers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Mixed organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have received considerable attention in recent years for their impressive solar to electrical power efficiency gains and potentially lower material and processing costs for optoelectronic applications. In addition to terrestrial applications, PSCs are of interest to the space power markets for their low cost, low weight, adaptability to flexible architectures, and tolerance to high energy particle irradiation (mainly protons and electrons). Here we investigate the properties of mixed formamidinium-methylammonium tin-lead iodide (FASn)0.6(MAPb)0.4I3 perovskites which lower the lead content as well as the bandgap, making them attractive for the low bandgap absorber material in tandem PSCs. Through current density-voltage (JV) characterization at lower temperatures, majority carrier transport is hindered and a barrier to photogenerated carrier extraction is evident. This is attributed to the thermally induced change of the bandgap of the absorber layer relative to the energy selective contacts in the device. We find that although the architecture used here hinders the performance at temperatures below 225 K, the tolerance to high energy (3.7 MeV) protons is impressive, considerably out-performing commercially available thin-film CIGS. These results suggest further improvements to structural and interface stability as well as lightweight encapsulation could lead to all perovskite flexible tandem arrays deployed for power generation on missions to low Earth orbit, the moon, Mars, and beyond.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages9
JournalSolar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume230
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5900-80520

Keywords

  • perovskite solar cells
  • proton irradiation
  • radiation tolerance
  • space photovoltaics

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