Enhancing radiation resilience of wide-band-gap perovskite solar cells for space applications via A-site cation stabilization with PDAI2

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) for space applications have garnered significant attention due to their high tolerance to proton radiation. While the self-healing mechanism of PSCs is largely attributed to mobile inorganic halide ions, the effects of radiation on organic A-site cations remain underexplored. In this study, wide-band-gap Cs/formamidinium (FA) PSCs, which are promising for tandem applications in space environments, were subjected to harsh proton radiation testing. Photovoltaic (PV) device parameters of the PSCs measured pre- and post-irradiation demonstrated that propane-1,3-diammonium iodide (PDAI2) treatment effectively mitigates radiation-induced damage to the perovskite layer. Advanced characterization techniques, including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling using femtosecond laser ablation (fs-LA) and time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA), were employed to analyze the impact of proton radiation on A-site organic cations. Additionally, time-resolved Kelvin probe force microscopy (tr-KPFM) was utilized to elucidate the mechanism by which PDAI2 treatment mitigates proton-induced damage to the organic cations.