Origin of the X-Ray-Induced Damage in Perovskite Solar Cells
Xuezeng Dai, Chengbin Fei, Praneeth Kandlakunta, Liang Zhao, Zhenyi Ni, Lei R. Cao, Jinsong Huang
Abstract
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are promising candidates for not only terrestrial but also space applications. The remarkable power-per-weight of nearly 30 W/g makes them attractive to be deployed on a spacecraft. However, the high-energy radiation in outer space could damage the PSCs, making it crucial to understand their degradation mechanism. Here, we investigated the PSCs’ response to X-ray radiation, and proposed that the X-ray-induced damage was attributed to the displacement of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{I}^{-}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , creating lattice defects by the radiation-generated secondary electrons. We verified the hypothesis by simulating the energy deposition of X-rays in PSCs and investigating the PSCs’ <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in situ</i> electronic responses to the X-ray and electron beam. Furthermore, we studied the variation in spatial distribution of trap densities under X-ray radiation, which revealed that the defect-abundant perovskite/Poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) interface was the most rapidly degraded site in PSCs.