Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells on Ultrathin Glass for Space Applications

Irvine, S.J.C.; Lamb, David; Clayton, Andrew; Kartopu, Giray; Barrioz, Vincent

doi:10.1007/s11664-014-3090-9

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…After the light intensity correction, we found that 96.8% of original PCE of the perovskite solar cell device retained after the long‐term radiation stability test. It is noted that light loss can be alleviated by using different types of glass, for example, the cerium doped glass, which can avoid the formation of color centers under radiation in space. Self‐healing behavior of the perovskite device was observed upon irradiation.…”

Section: Photovoltaic Parameters Of a Perovskite Device Before And Afmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organohalide Lead Perovskites: More Stable than Glass under Gamma‐Ray Radiation

et al. 2018

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high-throughput fabrication of perovskite modules has also been demon strated with simple processes such as blade coating with module efficiency close to 15%. [8] It remains unclear as to whether the perovskite solar cells can operate over 25 years in a real-world environment that is filled with oxygen and moisture, which are their two major stressors. Enhanced encapsulation has clearly shown to elongate the operational lifetime of perovskite solar cells to a much longer duration, indicating that the intrinsic stability of perovskite solar cells may be much longer than expected. [9][10][11] Nevertheless, perovskite solar cells may find their niche applications in space where oxygen or moisture does not exist. For space applications, there are new stressors such as radiation that may impose new threats to the stability of perovskite solar cells, while stability of solar cells under radiation has been rarely studied. The increasing interest in perovskite-based X-ray and gamma-ray detectors warrants an imperative study of the stability of perovskite materials and devices under ionizing radiation. [12,13] Less than a handful of studies have been performed to reveal the effects of proton, electron, and X-ray irradiation on perovskite so far. [14][15][16][17] Miyazawa et al. irradiated perovskite solar cells with 1 MeV electrons and found that the devices retained 93% of their peak performance after irradiation with a fluence of 1 × 10 16 cm −2 . [15] Experiments conducted by Lang et. al. [14] indicated a decrease in short-circuit current density (J SC ) by 20% for perovskite solar cells exposed to a proton dose of 1 × 10 13 p cm −2 . The perovskite self-healed with recovery on fill factor (FF) and open-circuit voltage (V OC ) after the proton irradiation terminated. [16] The effects of soft X-ray exposure on uncovered perovskites were investigated by Motoki et al. who reported that soft X-ray irradiation resulted in the evaporation of perovskite surface with residual elements in the form of crystalline PbI 2 . Apart from above stability studies with different radiation sources, the stability of perovskite device under gamma-ray radiation is also important but remained virtually unexplored. [18] Large amounts of gamma-rays are inevitably produced when the galactic cosmic rays, comprising mainly protons and alpha particles, undergo nuclear interactions with the constituent nuclei of the spacecraft, which poses a challenge to the perovskite materials for their long-term application in space. Moreover, organohalide perovskites also showed great Organohalide metal perovskites have emerged as promising semiconductor materials for use as space solar cells and radiation detectors. However, there is a lack of study of their stability under operational conditions. Here a stability study of perovskite solar cells under gamma-rays and visible light simultaneously is reported. The perovskite active layers are shown to retain 96.8% of their initial power conversion efficiency under continuous irradiation of gamma-rays and light for...

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Section: Photovoltaic Parameters Of a Perovskite Device Before And Afmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organohalide Lead Perovskites: More Stable than Glass under Gamma‐Ray Radiation

et al. 2018

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“…Sample A was deposited on a 50 µm cover glass and sample B a 100 µm cover glass. The results of both of these samples have both been reported elsewhere, but are reiterated here to demonstrate the progress made [13, 14]. Samples C and D were deposited onto a chemically toughened 100 µm cover glass which is now the substrate of choice for further development of this device structure.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…The R s was significantly reduced from 11.2 to 3.3 Ω·cm 2 between samples A and D. The most significant decrease in R s was observed between samples A and B, both of which did not benefit from the high‐resistivity ZnO layer or indeed the post‐growth anneal in the air. For this decrease in R s no change was made to the back contacting, and was attributed to an improvement of the front contact resistance in a previous publication [14]. The authors described how sample A had one front contact made to the AZO along one side of the 60 × 60 mm substrate using a gold wire embedded in a silver paint.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Lightweight and low‐cost thin film photovoltaics for large area extra‐terrestrial applications

Lamb

Irvine

Clayton

et al. 2015

IET Renewable Power Generation

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This work describes progress towards achieving a flexible, high specific power and low-cost photovoltaic (PV) for emerging large area space applications. The study reports the highest conversion efficiency of 15.3% AM1.5G for a CdTe device on ultra-thin cerium-doped cover glass, the standard protective material for extra-terrestrial PVs. The deposition technique used for all of the semiconductor layers comprising the device structure was atmospheric pressure metal organic chemical vapour deposition. Improvements to the device structure over those previously reported led to a V oc of 788 mV and a relatively low series resistance of 3.3 Ω•cm 2. These were largely achieved by the introduction of a post-growth air anneal and a refinement of the front contact bus bars, respectively. The aluminiumdoped zinc oxide transparent conductive oxide, being the first layer applied to the cover glass, was subject to thermal shock cycling +80 to (−) 196°C to test the adhesion under the extreme conditions likely to be encountered for space application. Scotch Tape testing and sheet resistance measurements before and after the thermal shock testing demonstrated that the aluminium-doped zinc oxide remained well adhered to the cover glass and its electrical performance unchanged.

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“…The Centre for Solar Energy Research (CSER), Swansea University in collaboration with the University of Surrey has developed a thin film cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell technology for use in Space . Working with industrial partners Qioptiq Space Technology (QST) and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, this solar cell technology is designed to meet the emerging demands of new space applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proton irradiation of CdTe thin film photovoltaics deposited on cerium‐doped space glass

Lamb

Underwood

Barrioz

et al. 2017

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Space photovoltaics is dominated by multi-junction (III-V) technology. However, emerging applications will require solar arrays with high specific power (kW/kg), flexibility in stowage and deployment, and a significantly lower cost than the current III-V technology offers. This research demonstrates direct deposition of thin film CdTe onto the radiation-hard cover glass that is normally laminated to any solar cell deployed in space. Four CdTe samples, with 9 defined contact device areas of 0.25 cm 2 , were irradiated with protons of 0.5-MeV energy and varying fluences. However, there are emerging applications which will require solar arrays with high specific power (kW/kg), flexibility in stowage and deployment, and a significantly lower cost than is currently available. 4New space PV technologies need to be developed to meet the needs of future advances in space exploration and energy harvesting. Some --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells on Ultrathin Glass for Space Applications

Abstract: This paper details the preliminary findings of a study to achieve a durable thin film CdTe photovoltaic device structure onto ultra-thin space qualified cover glass. An aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) transparent conducting oxide (TCO) was deposited directly onto cover glass

Cited by 14 publications

References 16 publications

Organohalide Lead Perovskites: More Stable than Glass under Gamma‐Ray Radiation

Organohalide Lead Perovskites: More Stable than Glass under Gamma‐Ray Radiation

Lightweight and low‐cost thin film photovoltaics for large area extra‐terrestrial applications

Proton irradiation of CdTe thin film photovoltaics deposited on cerium‐doped space glass

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