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• W3048686105 abstract "•We report perovskite and organic solar cells on a suborbital rocket flight•In situ demonstration of functionality and power generation under space conditions•Solar cells exceeded power densities between 7 and 14 mW cm−2•Confirmed solar cell operation under diffuse terrestrial irradiation The emerging technologies of perovskite and organic solar cells have attracted plenty of attention recently. For the application as space solar cells, they can be processed on ultra-thin plastic foils that qualify them as extremely light-weight and flexible candidates for the future generation of solar panels. Applied in space crafts or satellites, such panels would save propellant and create novel possibilities for space missions. However, not much information about their behavior in space environment has been documented so far. Here, we report on an experiment with perovskite and organic solar cells on board of a short rocket flight, reaching satellite altitudes for the first time. The electrical characterization during flight demonstrated that the solar cells matched their performance expectations, highlighting their potential for the application in space. This step into space is an entry for future long-term space experiments of these revolutionary technologies. Perovskite and organic solar cells possess a revolutionary potential for space applications. The thin-film solar cells can be processed onto thin polymer foils that enable an exceptional specific power, i.e., obtainable electric power per mass, being superior to their inorganic counterparts. However, research toward space applications was mainly restricted to terrestrial conditions so far. Here, we report the launch of perovskite and organic solar cells of different architectures on a suborbital rocket flight. This is an in situ demonstration of their functionality and power generation under space conditions. We measured solar cell current-voltage characteristics in variable illumination states due to different rocket orientations during flight. Under strong solar irradiance, the solar cells perform efficiently, and they even produce power with weak diffuse light reflected from Earth’s surface. These results highlight both the suitability for near-Earth applications as well as the potential for deep-space missions for these innovative technologies. Perovskite and organic solar cells possess a revolutionary potential for space applications. The thin-film solar cells can be processed onto thin polymer foils that enable an exceptional specific power, i.e., obtainable electric power per mass, being superior to their inorganic counterparts. However, research toward space applications was mainly restricted to terrestrial conditions so far. Here, we report the launch of perovskite and organic solar cells of different architectures on a suborbital rocket flight. This is an in situ demonstration of their functionality and power generation under space conditions. We measured solar cell current-voltage characteristics in variable illumination states due to different rocket orientations during flight. Under strong solar irradiance, the solar cells perform efficiently, and they even produce power with weak diffuse light reflected from Earth’s surface. These results highlight both the suitability for near-Earth applications as well as the potential for deep-space missions for these innovative technologies. Since the first launch of a solar-powered satellite in 1959, space solar panels have been improved with a focus on the specific power, presumably the most important measure due to the initial rocket launch.1Green C.M. Lomask V. Vanguard: A History.Military Affairs. 1971; 35: 120https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4202.pdfCrossref Google Scholar,2Luque A. Hegedus S. Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. Wiley, 2011Google Scholar Today, silicon space solar panels with specific powers of less than 1 W g−1 are rigid and heavy.3Fatemi, N.S., Pollard, H.E., Hou, H.Q., and Sharps, P.R. (2000). Solar array trades between very high-efficiency multi-junction and Si space solar cells. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2000, pp. 1083–1086.Google Scholar Laboratory state-of-the-art high-performance inorganic III-V triple-junction GaInP/GaAs/GaInAs thin-film solar panels exceeded 3 W g−1 but strongly rely on precious materials and energy-intensive manufacturing.4Cardwell, D., Kirk, A., Stender, C., Wibowo, A., Tuminello, F., Drees, M., Chan, R., Osowski, M., and Pan, N. (2017). Very high specific power ELO solar cells (>3 kW/kg) for UAV, space, and portable power applications. Conference record of the Forty-Fourth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 3511–3513.Google Scholar,5Mohr N.J. Schermer J.J. Huijbregts M.A.J. Meijer A. Reijnders L. Life cycle assessment of thin-film GaAs and GaInP/GaAs solar modules.Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2007; 15: 163-179Crossref Scopus (35) Google Scholar The emerging technologies of (hybrid) perovskite6Green M.A. Ho-Baillie A. Snaith H.J. The emergence of perovskite solar cells.Nat. Photon. 2014; 8: 506-514Crossref Scopus (5007) Google Scholar, 7Gao P. Bin Mohd Yusoff A.R. Nazeeruddin M.K. Dimensionality engineering of hybrid halide perovskite light absorbers.Nat. Commun. 2018; 9: 5028Crossref PubMed Scopus (191) Google Scholar, 8Grätzel M. The light and shade of perovskite solar cells.Nat. Mater. 2014; 13: 838-842Crossref PubMed Scopus (1689) Google Scholar and organic photovoltaics9Li G. Zhu R. Yang Y. Polymer solar cells.Nat. Photon. 2012; 6: 153-161Crossref Scopus (3814) Google Scholar,10Hou J. Inganäs O. Friend R.H. Gao F. Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors.Nat. Mater. 2018; 17: 119-128Crossref PubMed Google Scholar (HOPVs) with certified record power conversion efficiencies for single-absorber cells currently reaching 25.2% and 17.35%, respectively became promising alternatives within the last years.11Green M.A. Dunlop E.D. Hohl-Ebinger J. Yoshita M. Kopidakis N. Ho-Baillie A.W.Y. Solar cell efficiency tables (version 55).Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 2020; 28: 3-15Crossref Scopus (733) Google Scholar, 12Cui Y. Yao H. Zhang J. Zhang T. Wang Y. Hong L. Xian K. Xu B. Zhang S. Peng J. et al.Over 16% efficiency organic photovoltaic cells enabled by a chlorinated acceptor with increased open-circuit voltages.Nat. Commun. 2019; 10: 2515Crossref PubMed Scopus (1245) Google Scholar, 13Jiang Q. Zhao Y. Zhang X. Yang X. Chen Y. Chu Z. Ye Q. Li X. Yin Z. You J. Surface passivation of perovskite film for efficient solar cells.Nat. Photonics. 2019; 13: 460-466Crossref Scopus (2724) Google Scholar Their chemical versatility provides a large potential for the optimization of efficiency and stability. However, their key advantage qualifying them as space solar cells is wet-chemical processability at ambient temperatures. In contrast to conventional inorganic solar cells, this allows the deposition (via spin coating, printing, spraying, to name a few) of the (sub-)μm thick cells onto ultra-thin and light-weight polymer foils as flexible and foldable substrates.14Galagan Y. Di Giacomo F. Gorter H. Kirchner G. Vries I. de Andriessen R. Groen P. Roll-to-roll slot die coated perovskite for efficient flexible solar cells.Adv. Energy Mater. 2018; 8: 1801935Crossref Scopus (135) Google Scholar, 15Wu Q. Guo J. Sun R. Guo J. Jia S. Li Y. Wang J. Min J. Slot-die printed non-fullerene organic solar cells with the highest efficiency of 12.9% for low-cost PV-driven water splitting.Nano Energy. 2019; 61: 559-566Crossref Scopus (54) Google Scholar, 16Kaltenbrunner M. White M.S. Głowacki E.D. Sekitani T. Someya T. Sariciftci N.S. Bauer S. Ultrathin and lightweight organic solar cells with high flexibility.Nat. Commun. 2012; 3: 770Crossref PubMed Scopus (1313) Google Scholar, 17Barrows A.T. Pearson A.J. Kwak C.K. Dunbar A.D.F. Buckley A.R. Lidzey D.G. Efficient planar heterojunction mixed-halide perovskite solar cells deposited via spray-deposition.Energy Environ. Sci. 2014; 7: 2944-2950Crossref Google Scholar, 18Li Y. Meng L. Yang Y.M. Xu G. Hong Z. Chen Q. You J. Li G. Yang Y. Li Y. High-efficiency robust perovskite solar cells on ultrathin flexible substrates.Nat. Commun. 2016; 7: 10214Crossref PubMed Scopus (510) Google Scholar, 19Kim T. Kim J.-H. Kang T.E. Lee C. Kang H. Shin M. Wang C. Ma B. Jeong U. Kim T.-S. Kim B.J. Flexible, highly efficient all-polymer solar cells.Nat. Commun. 2015; 6: 8547Crossref PubMed Scopus (677) Google Scholar, 20Kaltenbrunner M. Adam G. Głowacki E.D. Drack M. Schwödiauer R. Leonat L. Apaydin D.H. Groiss H. Scharber M.C. White M.S. et al.Flexible high power-per-weight perovskite solar cells with chromium oxide-metal contacts for improved stability in air.Nat. Mater. 2015; 14: 1032-1039Crossref PubMed Scopus (680) Google Scholar Thus, HOPVs surpassed the aforementioned specific power values of their inorganic counterparts by far. A highly flexible organic solar cell reached 10 W g−1, and even values up to 29.4 W g−1 are reported for perovskite solar cells achieved on 1.4- and 1.3-μm-thin polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foils, respectively.16Kaltenbrunner M. White M.S. Głowacki E.D. Sekitani T. Someya T. Sariciftci N.S. Bauer S. Ultrathin and lightweight organic solar cells with high flexibility.Nat. Commun. 2012; 3: 770Crossref PubMed Scopus (1313) Google Scholar,21Kang S. Jeong J. Cho S. Yoon Y.J. Park S. Lim S. Kim J.Y. Ko H. Ultrathin, lightweight and flexible perovskite solar cells with an excellent power-per-weight performance.J. Mater. Chem. A. 2019; 7: 1107-1114Crossref Google Scholar Apart from an extensive potential to save weight and costs, this creates the opportunity for novel possibilities of space-mission design, such as solar-powered deep-space missions and efficient electric propulsion.2Luque A. Hegedus S. Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. Wiley, 2011Google Scholar,22NASASolar Power Technologies for Future Planetary Science Missions, JPL D-101316.https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/548/solar-power-technologies-for-future-planetary-science-missions/Date: 2017Google Scholar Toward space applications, HOPVs must withstand the launch and are thereafter exposed to extreme environmental conditions, such as micro-gravity, AM0 solar irradiation, cosmic (particle) radiation, ultra-high vacuum, and huge temperature differences.23Thirsk R. Kuipers A. Mukai C. Williams D. The space-flight environment: the International Space Station and beyond.CMAJ. 2009; 180: 1216-1220Crossref PubMed Scopus (115) Google Scholar Previous laboratory tests investigated the impact of the different environmental conditions with quite promising results in terms of material stability: the soft organic compounds show stable operation in vacuum under AM0 irradiation,24Guo S. Brandt C. Andreev T. Metwalli E. Wang W. Perlich J. Müller-Buschbaum P. First step into space: performance and morphological evolution of P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cells corrected under AM0 illumination.ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2014; 6: 17902-17910Crossref PubMed Scopus (34) Google Scholar i.e., the solar spectrum outside Earth’s atmosphere with a higher total irradiance of 136.6 mW cm−2 and enhanced UV contribution compared with the terrestrial reference spectrum AM1.5g.25Green M.A. Limiting photovoltaic efficiency under new ASTM International G173-based reference spectra.Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2012; 20: 954-959Crossref Scopus (30) Google Scholar Indeed, the absence of oxygen seems to reduce the chemical degradation of organic solar cells under strong UV exposure. Strong UV light is also known to cause degradation in perovskite solar cells, especially in TiO2-based devices, where the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 seems to play an important role.26Leijtens T. Eperon G.E. Pathak S. Abate A. Lee M.M. Snaith H.J. Overcoming ultraviolet light instability of sensitized TiO2 with meso-superstructured organometal tri-halide perovskite solar cells.Nat. Commun. 2013; 4: 2885Crossref PubMed Scopus (1423) Google Scholar Under inert conditions, however, the solar cells recover after UV-induced degradation, which can be attributed to the neutralization of stacked charges and defect states in the absence of oxygen.27Lee S.W. Kim S. Bae S. Cho K. Chung T. Mundt L.E. Lee S. Park S. Park H. Schubert M.C. et al.UV degradation and recovery of perovskite solar cells.Sci. Rep. 2016; 6: 38150Crossref PubMed Scopus (221) Google Scholar This instability seems to be a property of TiO2-based devices in combination with ambient oxygen since it does not arise in TiO2-free cells.26Leijtens T. Eperon G.E. Pathak S. Abate A. Lee M.M. Snaith H.J. Overcoming ultraviolet light instability of sensitized TiO2 with meso-superstructured organometal tri-halide perovskite solar cells.Nat. Commun. 2013; 4: 2885Crossref PubMed Scopus (1423) Google Scholar Moisture-induced degradation in perovskite solar cells, considered as major stability issue,6Green M.A. Ho-Baillie A. Snaith H.J. The emergence of perovskite solar cells.Nat. Photon. 2014; 8: 506-514Crossref Scopus (5007) Google Scholar is not present in space. Concluding, the absence of air might avoid important degradation pathways for HOPVs. On the other hand, vacuum conditions can increase the outgassing and promote the illumination-induced defect formation and ion migration in perovskite solar cells, reducing long-term stability.28Jiang Y. Yang S.-C. Jeangros Q. Pisoni S. Moser T. Buecheler S. Tiwari A.N. Fu F. Mitigation of vacuum and illumination-induced degradation in perovskite solar cells by structure engineering.Joule. 2020; 4: 1087-1103Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (43) Google Scholar Nevertheless, appropriate solar cell architecture engineering has been shown to be a promising path toward minimizing the outgassing and ion accumulation to improve long-term operational stability.28Jiang Y. Yang S.-C. Jeangros Q. Pisoni S. Moser T. Buecheler S. Tiwari A.N. Fu F. Mitigation of vacuum and illumination-induced degradation in perovskite solar cells by structure engineering.Joule. 2020; 4: 1087-1103Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (43) Google Scholar Another independent way to prevent the influence of ambient vacuum could be appropriate encapsulation, which will likely play an important role for the long-term stability of HOPV devices.29Cardinaletti I. Vangerven T. Nagels S. Cornelissen R. Schreurs D. Hruby J. Vodnik J. Devisscher D. Kesters J. D’Haen J. et al.Organic and perovskite solar cells for space applications.Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells. 2018; 182: 121-127Crossref Scopus (113) Google Scholar HOPVs exposed to cosmic particle radiation show a superior radiation hardness compared with Si or triple-junction space solar cells and show recovery and self-healing effects after exposure, making them particularly interesting for applications in orbits with strong exposure.30Paternò G.M. Robbiano V. Fraser K.J. Frost C. García Sakai V. Cacialli F. Neutron radiation tolerance of two benchmark thiophene-based conjugated polymers: the importance of crystallinity for organic avionics.Sci. Rep. 2017; 7: 41013Crossref PubMed Scopus (44) Google Scholar, 31Li G. Yang Y. Devine R.A.B. Mayberry C. Radiation induced damage and recovery in poly(3-hexyl thiophene) based polymer solar cells.Nanotechnology. 2008; 19: 424014Crossref PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar, 32Lang F. Nickel N.H. Bundesmann J. Seidel S. Denker A. Albrecht S. Brus V.V. Rappich J. Rech B. Landi G. Neitzert H.C. Radiation hardness and self-healing of perovskite solar cells.Adv. Mater. 2016; 28: 8726-8731Crossref PubMed Scopus (141) Google Scholar Extreme temperatures of ± 80°C cause reversible efficiency drops for perovskite solar cells.33Jacobsson T.J. Tress W. Correa-Baena J.-P. Edvinsson T. Hagfeldt A. Room temperature as a goldilocks environment for CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 perovskite solar cells: the importance of temperature on device performance.J. Phys. Chem. C. 2016; 120: 11382-11393Crossref Scopus (53) Google Scholar However, under both low irradiances and low temperatures (LILT conditions) and as present in the outer solar system, the cells generate power efficiently since charge extraction does not seem to be limited by thermionic emission.34Brown C.R. Eperon G.E. Whiteside V.R. Sellers I.R. Potential of high-stability perovskite solar cells for low-intensity–low-temperature (LILT) outer planetary space missions.ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2019; 2: 814-821Crossref Scopus (23) Google Scholar All these laboratory tests targeted at the behavior of HOPVs influenced by a limited selection of simulated environmental conditions, since the complete set of conditions is difficult to achieve and to control in the laboratory. Hence, a completely different approach was pursued by near-space experiments to come closer to real space conditions in order to assess the full set of environmental parameters of interest at the same time. There exist reports of previous stratospheric balloon flights reaching the upper atmosphere carrying HOPV devices.29Cardinaletti I. Vangerven T. Nagels S. Cornelissen R. Schreurs D. Hruby J. Vodnik J. Devisscher D. Kesters J. D’Haen J. et al.Organic and perovskite solar cells for space applications.Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells. 2018; 182: 121-127Crossref Scopus (113) Google Scholar,35Tu Y. Xu G. Yang X. Zhang Y. Li Z. Su R. et al.Mixed-cation perovskite solar cells in space.Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 2019; 62 (974221–1–4)Crossref Scopus (112) Google Scholar At altitudes of around 35 km the solar spectrum is less influenced by Earth’s atmosphere, and the environmental conditions come closer to those present in space. The UV exposure is stronger, and the atmospheric pressure is significantly reduced at these altitudes. The demonstration of the operation of HOPVs in these conditions makes these near-space experiments valuable intermediate scientific steps on the ladder toward space applications. However, the devices are not exposed to a demanding rocket launch, particle radiation, ultra-high vacuum, and micro-gravity, since they did not leave Earth’s atmosphere or reach real space in orbital heights. Hence, these experiments have limited suitability to transfer the findings to real space applications. It is difficult to obtain knowledge or to probe expectations of HOPVs during near-space experiments about their operational behavior in orbital altitudes. Consequently, the next step would be to operate HOPVs at significantly higher altitudes, which reach up to low-Earth orbit (LEO) altitudes. In these heights of more than 100 km, atmospheric influences become negligible and the environmental conditions resemble the real space. Thus, solar cell measurements in these altitudes experience test conditions, which come closest to satellite missions and have a high significance for the space applicability and future long-term experiments of HOPVs. Here, we report on the experiment “organic and hybrid solar cells in space” (OHSCIS) that investigated HOPVs during a suborbital rocket flight. In the course of the flight, a stabilized payload orientation allowed us to obtain current-voltage characteristics under stable irradiance conditions in LEO altitudes for all cell types. This is possibly the first report of power generation of organic and perovskite solar cells in orbital altitudes. By tracking the evolution of short-circuit currents we can identify phases of direct solar irradiation and weak diffuse-light irradiation arising from the Earth’s surface. During phases of strong solar irradiance, both perovskite solar cell types (planar and mesoscopic nip-type) exceeded power densities (power per area) of 14 mW cm−2, whereas the organic solar cell types (bulk heterojunction absorber PBDB-T:ITIC and PTB7-Th:PC71BM in inverted architecture) reached more than 4 and 7 mW cm−2, respectively. Also, during a phase of being turned away from the sun, the solar cells still generated power, just collecting faint scattered light from the Earth. Interestingly, the power densities reached levels as anticipated for deep-space irradiance conditions, which underlines their potential for deep-space missions. HOPVs reached their performance expectations exposed to space conditions during this suborbital flight. Despite the limited experiment time, these results demonstrate the general applicability of HOPVs for satellite missions, exceeding the immediacy of previous near-space demonstrations by far. This further step into space is a base for future experiments aiming toward the next step, which will likely be the long-term application of HOPV devices in Earth orbits. The OHSCIS experiment was launched on a suborbital sounding rocket at the Esrange Space Center, northern Sweden, as part of the ATEK/MAPHEUS-8 campaign (Figure 1). The experiment as part of the cylindrical shaped payload of MAPHEUS-8 (Figure 1) was arranged in eight independent segments. Each segment consisted of two solar cell modules sharing one hatch and one readout system. The eight hatches were distributed in azimuthal symmetry, enclosing an angle of 45°, as indicated in the schematic cut through the experiment presented in the inset in Figure 2C. For protection during ascent, each hatch was covered with a fused silica window that transmits more than 90% in the visible and UV wavelength range of the AM0 solar spectrum (see Figure S1). The indented solar cell modules were placed behind the windows, facing radially outward as indicated in Figure 2C. Incident solar light shining onto the payload can illuminate simultaneously up to four hatches but up to three solar cell module pairs due to shadowing effects. Venting holes directly at the solar cell contacting side and in the payload mantle ensured pressure equalization to the ambient pressure. The four solar cell module types represented a simplified selection of state-of-the-art single-junction perovskite and organic architectures and absorber materials: The mixed organic lead mixed halide perovskite solar cells in planar (SnO2) and mesoscopic (m-TiO2) architectures can exceed power conversion efficiencies of 20%.36Saliba M. Correa-Baena J.-P. Wolff C.M. Stolterfoht M. Phung N. Albrecht S. Neher D. Abate A. How to make over 20% efficient perovskite solar cells in regular ( n–i–p ) and inverted ( p–i–n ) architectures.Chem. Mater. 2018; 30: 4193-4201Crossref Scopus (398) Google Scholar The inverted organic bulk-heterojunctions of non-fullerene PBDB-T:ITIC and of narrow band gap polymer:fullerene PTB7-Th:PC71BM type used in the flight architecture are reported with 8.6% and 8.25%, respectively.37Doumon N.Y. Dryzhov M.V. Houard F.V. Le Corre V.M. Rahimi Chatri A. Christodoulis P. Koster L.J.A. Photostability of fullerene and non-fullerene polymer solar cells: the role of the acceptor.ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2019; 11: 8310-8318Crossref PubMed Scopus (80) Google Scholar,38Liao S.H. Jhuo H.J. Yeh P.N. Cheng Y.S. Li Y.L. Lee Y.H. Sharma S. Chen S.A. Single junction inverted polymer solar cell reaching power conversion efficiency 10.31% by employing dual-doped zinc oxide nano-film as cathode interlayer.Sci. Rep. 2014; 4: 6813Crossref PubMed Scopus (476) Google Scholar Fabrication details can be found in the Experimental Procedures. A schematic layer stacking of each solar cell type is presented in Figure 2A. Figure 2C further illustrates the arrangement of the eight segments and the positioning of the four different solar cell types, which are described below. Different symbols label the segments, the solar cell module types are colored according to their active layer color of Figure 2A. Hence, each solar cell module position and type is defined via symbol and color, summing up to in total 16 individual solar cell modules, four of each module type. A module consisted of eight individual solar cells with an aperture-defined active area of 10 mm2. In total, the experiment carried 32 individual solar cells of each type. A dedicated data acquisition system recorded the current-voltage characteristic of the solar cells during the flight. One single measurement cycle lasted around 10 s and covered voltage sweeps from −0.4 up to 1.35 V and back (details in the Experimental Procedures). The OHSCIS main measurement time, i.e., the phase with pitch-, yaw-, and roll-rate control of less than 0.9° s−1, began with rate-control system switch-on 61 s after lift-off (LO) at an altitude above 70 km. Figure 2B presents the altitude as a function of time after LO as obtained from GPS data. The payload reached the apogee in 239 km altitude after 251 s; re-entry mode detection occurred after 428 s in an altitude of 100 km. This resulted in a main measurement time of around 6 min, in which current-voltage characteristics were continuously recorded. Here, we note that temperature sensors placed next to the solar cells measured temperatures ranging from 30°C to 60°C during the main measurement time. Thus, the change of temperature likely has only a minor influence on the solar cell performance in our experiment. Analogously, the solar cell damage due to cosmic radiation is not considered to play a significant role in this experiment. A stable orientation of the payload is crucial for a constant irradiation intensity during single measurements. The rate control preserved a fairly constant incident angle of solar and Earth illumination onto the cells with only a small change during single sweeps. Especially for sunlight shining perpendicularly onto the cell surface, i.e., in phases of strongest intensity, only small changes of the irradiation intensity occur as a reason of the sinusoidal character of the projection effect. Figure 2B schematically visualizes the payload orientation during the main measurement time. During the ascent, the sun strongly illuminated one side of the payload denoted as phase I. A slow angular drift gradually aligned the payload with the direction of solar radiation to cross the parallel alignment in phase II. The slow angular drift continued, gradually increasing the solar illumination onto the opposite side of the payload with respect to phase I, resulting in a strong illumination in phase III again. This sequence can be deduced from the evolution of short-circuit current densities (Jscs) of the cells in Figure 2C. The photo-generated current scales proportionally with the irradiation intensity and, therefore, can be considered as a measure for the illumination intensity, apart from possible performance deviations of individual cells. Directly at the beginning of micro-gravity, high Jscs are measured in the segments labeled in Figure 2C as “square,” “diamond,” and “X” in descending order. For the first minute in the main measurement phase, the Jscs of these segments form a plateau, indicating a stable orientation and, therefore, stable light intensity during several measurement cycles (phase I). Thereafter the Jscs decline gradually and reach a minimum approximately in the apogee (phase II). This is the moment of lowest incident light of the entire flight. Then the Jscs of segments labeled as “circle,” “plus,” and “triangle” in descending order, gradually increase and reach a second plateau, beginning at around 340 s after LO and lasting around one minute (phase III). During phase I the highest Jscs were measured in segment “square.” Therefore, we focus on this segment and the phase I plateau to select solar cell measurements for SnO2 perovskite and PTB7-Th:PC71BM architectures under stable and strong illumination. As a measure for the performance, we introduce the maximum power point density pmpp, defined as the maximum power per area, which can be extracted during solar cell operation. Thus, we select the measurements of highest pmpp for SnO2 perovskite and PTB7-Th:PC71BM architectures during the phase I plateau (measurement start 67.4 s and 87.9 s after LO, respectively). During phase III, the highest Jscs were measured in segment “circle.” In the same manner, we select the measurements of highest pmpp for mesoscopic TiO2 perovskite and PBDB-T:ITIC architectures (measurement start 384.3 and 353.5 s after LO, respectively). Figure 3 presents the resulting current-voltage measurements for each solar cell architecture. Here, we note that the flight performance cannot be easily related to the laboratory solar cell performance (pre-characterization in the Supplemental Information, Figure S2; Table S1) due to several reasons: even in the rare case of normal incident irradiation, the transmission of the fused silica windows is below 94% in the relevant spectral range (see Figure S1) as a reason of Fresnel reflection, which attenuates the transmitted irradiance onto the cells. With increasing inclination, Fresnel reflection at vacuum-glass interfaces becomes stronger, effectively reducing the glass transmission and irradiance that can reach the solar cells. More importantly, any inclination of the solar cells reduces the received solar irradiance due to the area projection effect. Also, the use of shadow masks to obtain defined apertures shifts the illuminated area away from the active area for higher inclinations. This reduces the effective active area contributing to the photo-current below the mask dimensions. At inclinations larger than 45°, the active areas begin to be partly shadowed by the masks and at inclinations higher than approximately 70°, geometrical parts begin to directly shadow the active areas of the solar cells. Figure 2C shows that in phase I the segment labeled with “diamond” measured higher Jscs than the segment labeled with “X,” in phase III the segment labeled with “plus” measured higher Jscs than the segment labeled with “triangle.” Specifically, the Jsc for the segments adjacent to the one of strongest illumination differed, indicating that the sun did not shine perpendicularly onto the cells in these selected measurements. Hence, the presented current-voltage measurements likely do not represent the full potential of the solar cells. To assess the solar cell performance during the different phases in more detail, we present an overview of the key parameters Vocs, Jscs, pmpps, and fill factors (FFs) of all devices measured during phases of solar illumination in Figure S3. Also, on average, the strongest currents were measured in segment “square” during phase I and in segment “circle” during phase III. In Figure 3A the smoothness of the current-voltage curves and the similarity of forward and backward scans suggest a negligible change of irradiance during single-cell measurements. This validates our selection from the illumination plateaus in Figure 2C. All four solar cell types show typical diode curves with a vertical offset due to the strong illumination. The highest measured Jscs exceeded 20 mA cm−2 for the TiO2 perovskite cells and thereby surpassed the SnO2 perovskite cell’s Jscs. Since we observed the same behavior during pre-characterization in the home laboratories, it is not attributed to the flight. The SnO2 compensated the lower currents with a higher FF of about 70% and a higher open-circuit voltage (Voc) to reach a similar high pmpp and hence flight performance. Thus, both perovskite types exceeded 14 mW cm−2, which is in the same magnitude as the power densities measured in the pre-characterization. Unexpectedly, these measurements show a lower hysteresis than during the pre-characterization. Hysteresis in perovskite solar cells is frequently attributed to the presence of both ion migration and interfacial recombination of charge carriers.39Calado P. Telford A.M. Bryant D. Li X. Nelson J. O'Regan B.C. Barnes P.R.F. Evidence for ion migration in hybrid perovskite solar cells with minimal hysteresis.Nat. Commun. 2016; 7: 13831Crossref PubMed Scopus (504) Google Scholar In our case, a lower photo-current during flight compared with pre-characterization could reduce the charge carrier accumulation and, hence, the interfacial recombination, effectively reducing the observed hysteresis. Moreover, since this effect is observed for both perovskite solar cell types, it could also be related to oxygen doping of the electron-blocking layer spiro-MeOTAD during the countdown. This material is known to show an enhanced conductivity after oxygen doping, which could also reduce the observed hysteresis.40Abate A. Leijtens T. Pathak S. Teuscher J. Avolio R. Errico M.E. Kirkpatrik J. Ball J.M. Docampo P. McPherson I. Snaith H.J. Lithium salts as redox active p-type dopants for organic semiconductors and their impact in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells.Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013; 15: 2572-2579Crossref PubMed Scopus (489) Google Scholar The PTB7-Th:PC71BM organic solar cell surpassed 7.5 mW cm−2, a similarly high performance as during pre-characterization, whereas the PBDB-T:ITIC organic cell showed a significant decrease of Voc and FF compared with pre-characterization but still reached 4 mW cm−2. With these performances, even our least-performing solar cell type reached a similar power density as an organic solar cell deposited on an ultra-thin PET foil by Kaltenbrunner et al. some time ago.16Kaltenbrunner M. White M.S. Głowacki E.D. Sekitani T. Someya T. Sariciftci N.S. Bauer S. Ultrathin and lightweight organic solar cells with high flexibility.Nat. Commun. 2012; 3: 770Crossref PubMed Scopus (1313) Google Scholar That power density was sufficient to reach a specific power of 10 W g−1. Assuming a similar weight per area for our solar cells, the power densities measured during space operation would give rise to remarkable specific powers. Based on this comparison, the organic solar cells would outperform inorganic solar cells (reaching 3 W g−1 in AM0) by a factor of three, whereas our perovskite solar cells with their higher power densities would exceed the inorganic solar cells by up to one order of magnitude21Kang S. Jeong J. Cho S. Yoon Y.J. Park S. Lim S. Kim J.Y. Ko H. Ultrathin, lightweight and flexible perovskite solar cells with an excellent power-per-weight performance.J. Mater. Chem. A. 2019; 7: 1107-1114Crossref Google Scholar in terms of specific powers. Therefore, there do not seem to be obstacles to reach such high specific powers with HOPVs in orbital altitudes. Owing to all the aforementioned effects, the HOPVs impressively demonstrated their efficient operation in space under strong solar irradiation and reached their performance expectations. During phase II a unique possibility occurred to measure HOPVs under special illumination conditions. The payload aligned with the sun, hence, a significant illumination source was diffuse reflection arising from Earth’s surface. To substantiate this, Figure 4 shows snapshots of all backward-sweep measurements of perovskite solar cells at the same time, one during phase II and one during phase III, corresponding to measurement starting times of 245.7 and 327.9 s, respectively. All eight simultaneously measured cells distributed around the ring show diode behavior with different vertical offsets, due to different irradiances. In phase III, three perovskite cells are simultaneously and strongly illuminated as expected for sunlight, i.e., parallel light. However, in phase II five of the eight perovskite cells show significant illumination, which requires a different scenario where direct sunlight cannot be the only illumination source. The surface of the Earth, however, is a spatially extended diffuse-light source that can illuminate more than half-side of the rocket simultaneously. Therefore, at least two segments were illuminated by reflected sunlight arising from Earth’s surface only. The power densities of the five simultaneously illuminated perovskite solar cells are ranging from 0.3–0.8 mW cm−2. During this phase of weak light exposure to the cells, the Vocs and also the FFs are largely preserved, as also shown in Figure S3. The average Vocs of the perovskite solar cells drop slightly from around 1 V in phases I and III to around 0.85 V during phase II, also the FFs drop slightly but remain above 60% during the seconds of lowest incident light. The organic solar cells show a similar trend, i.e., the obtained power densities correlate strongly with the short-circuit currents, and the power densities are reduced by a similar factor compared to phase III. These findings support that the power conversion efficiency of HOPVs can be maintained even under weak diffuse light known from previous studies,34Brown C.R. Eperon G.E. Whiteside V.R. Sellers I.R. Potential of high-stability perovskite solar cells for low-intensity–low-temperature (LILT) outer planetary space missions.ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2019; 2: 814-821Crossref Scopus (23) Google Scholar while here, these results are derived from measurements in real space. Interestingly, the HOPVs hereby generate power as expected for illumination conditions of the outer solar system at Jupiter and Saturn.34Brown C.R. Eperon G.E. Whiteside V.R. Sellers I.R. Potential of high-stability perovskite solar cells for low-intensity–low-temperature (LILT) outer planetary space missions.ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2019; 2: 814-821Crossref Scopus (23) Google Scholar Up to now, only probe Juno was powered by solar energy in Jupiter distance from the sun.22NASASolar Power Technologies for Future Planetary Science Missions, JPL D-101316.https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/548/solar-power-technologies-for-future-planetary-science-missions/Date: 2017Google Scholar Therefore, these measurements prove the ability of HOPVs situated in space to operate in diffuse and low irradiance light conditions—a promising result for their possible application in deep-space missions. In summary, we measured the voltage-current characteristics of different perovskite and organic solar cells during a suborbital rocket flight. All four types generate power in orbital altitudes under stable irradiance conditions in space conditions. Moreover, in phases of strong solar irradiation, the perovskite and organic solar cells showed considerably efficient performance and exceeded power densities of 14 and 7 mW cm−2, respectively. In particular, all solar cell types reached power densities that underline their potential to significantly outperform state-of-the-art inorganic space solar cells in terms of the specific power. In a phase of payload alignment with solar irradiation, we could investigate the solar cell performance under diffuse terrestrial irradiation. Thereby, we can confirm that all perovskite and organic solar cell types produce power under low irradiances in space environment. Interestingly, the perovskite solar cells show current densities as associated with solar irradiation conditions as present for deep-space missions, underlining their potential for such applications. Our findings highlight that the technologies of perovskite and organic solar cells can be brought to space without mitigations and operate efficiently under various illumination conditions in space environment. The large potential for material optimizations to enhance the stability will help to resolve possible concerns related to the lifetime. Proving the long-term operation in space environment in another experiment could be the next step toward space applications for these revolutionary technologies." @default.
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• W3048686105 title "Perovskite and Organic Solar Cells on a Rocket Flight" @default.
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• W3048686105 doi "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.07.004" @default.
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