Experimental study on irradiation of perovskite solar cells

Abstract

Solar cell is an important energy source for spacecraft. It is significant to study its resistance to space particle irradiation. In the past ten years, the research hotspot of solar cells has focused on the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) because of their advantages of long carrier lifetime, high light absorption performance, low cost and easy preparation. By now the photoelectric conversion efficiency of PSCs has reached to 25.5%. Recently, PSCs were found to be robust to space particle irradiation, which makes them possible to be used in the satellites and spacecraft. The antiradiation effects of perovskite solar cells with different cell structures and preparation processes have been studied, but the obtained experimental results are different. In this work, the experiments on radiations of protons, electrons and gamma rays of the same PSCs are carried out. The photoelectric characteristics before and after space particle irradiation are characterized, so as to analyze the radiation effect of PSCs. The experimental results show that the PSCs are sensitive to electron radiation and gamma radiation. With the increase of electron fluence and gamma total dose, the degradation of photoelectric characteristics of PSCs intensifies gradually. For gamma radiation, PSCs exhibit the most significantly radiation sensitivity. The PSCs are found to be robust to the proton irradiation. With the increase of proton fluence, the short-circuit currents of PSCs change little, the open-circuit voltages remain essentially unchanged, and the cell efficiency can be stably maintained at 94% of the pre-irradiation performance. Based on the above experimental data, a semi-empirical formula is established, and the radiation damage law of PSCs can be predicted with less experimental data, which will support the space application of PSCs.