Proton radiation resilience of CdSeTe photovoltaics: High predicted end-of-life performance for space applications
Two types of cadmium selenide telluride (CdSeTe) photovoltaic devices have been exposed to high-energy (150–1500 keV) protons with fluences ranging from 1 × 1011 to 9 × 1013 cm−2. Pre- and post-irradiation current density vs voltage characteristic data were collected and analyzed. Arsenic-doped CdSeTe devices retained 80% of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) relative to control devices after exposure to 1012 cm−2 650 keV protons, while copper-doped CdSeTe devices retained about 95% of the control PCE under the same irradiation condition. Displacement damage dose analysis coupled with simulations for duration-dependent performance in a medium Earth orbit space mission revealed superior PCE remaining factors, indicating greater resilience to proton bombardment than state-of-the-art multijunction III-V based space photovoltaic technologies.
Authors
- Michael J. Heben (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3788-3471)
- Zachary W. Zawisza
- Molly Smith
- Adam B. Phillips (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-5052)
- Scott Lambright (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6580-4931)
- Sabin Neupane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9151-6285)
- Zhaoning Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6677-0994)
- Abasi Abudulimu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1794-0993)
- Samuel Erickson
- Randy J. Ellingson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9520-6586)
- Aesha P. Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1989-8490)
- R. E. Irving (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3328-7044)
- James Becker
- Tamara Isaacs‐Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1096-153X)
- R. M. Snuggs
- Ebin Bastola (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4194-3385)
- Yanfa Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3977-5789)
- Po‐Yu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0438-6117)
Institutions
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (US)
- First Solar (United States) (US)
- Auburn University (US)
- University of Toledo (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- APL Energy
- Published
- 2025-10-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0282712
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- solar cell performance optimization
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73