Countdown to perovskite space launch: Guidelines to performing relevant radiation-hardness experiments

Creators: Kirmani, Ahmad R.; Durant, Brandon K.; Grandidier, Jonathan; Haegel, Nancy M.; Kelzenberg, Michael D.; Lao, Yao M.; McGehee, Michael D.; McMillon-Brown, Lyndsey; Ostrowski, David P.; Peshek, Timothy J.; Rout, Bibhudutta; Sellers, Ian R.; Steger, Mark; Walker, Don; Wilt, David M.; VanSant, Kaitlyn T.; Luther, Joseph M.

Abstract

Perovskite photovoltaics (PVs) are under intensive development for promise in terrestrial energy production. Soon, the community will find out how much of that promise may become reality. Perovskites also open new opportunities for lower cost space power. However, radiation tolerance of space environments requires appropriate analysis of relevant devices irradiated under representative radiation conditions. We present guidelines designed to rigorously test the radiation tolerance of perovskite PVs. We review radiation conditions in common orbits, calculate nonionizing and ionizing energy losses (NIEL and IEL) for perovskites, and prioritize proton radiation for effective nuclear interactions. Low-energy protons (0.05–0.15 MeV) create a representative uniform damage profile, whereas higher energy protons (commonly used in ground-based evaluation) require significantly higher fluence to accumulate the equivalent displacement damage dose due to lower scattering probability. Furthermore, high-energy protons may "heal" devices through increased electronic ionization. These procedural guidelines differ from those used to test conventional semiconductors.

Additional Information

© 2022 Elsevier. Received 10 November 2021, Revised 8 February 2022, Accepted 16 March 2022, Available online 11 April 2022. This work was authored in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract no. DE-AC36-08GO28308. NREL acknowledges support from the Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). B.R. acknowledges partial support from NSF grant number HBCU-EiR-2101181. M.D.K. is supported by the Space Solar Power Project at Caltech. NASA authors acknowledge funding provided by the Early Career Initiative Program within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. The work at the University of Oklahoma is supported by NASA under agreement no. 80NSSC19M0140 issued through NASA Oklahoma EPSCoR. The authors wish to thank R. Darling of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Arlington, VA, USA, for guidance and support. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. Author contributions. A.R.K. and J.M.L. conceived and supervised this work and wrote the manuscript. A.R.K. carried out all the SRIM/TRIM and NIEL, IEL simulations after in-depth discussions with D.W., B.R., D.M.W., B.K.D, and M.S. All authors contributed to the discussion and editing of the manuscript. Declaration of interests. M.D.M. is an advisor to Swift Solar and a member of the Joule advisory board. Data and code availability: SPENVIS is available from https://www.spenvis.oma.be/. SRIM/TRIM is available from http://www.srim.org.

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