What Are The Solar Cells That Can Prevent Radiation?

Anti radiation solar cells are mainly used in strong radiation environments such as space and nuclear industry, and need to have anti radiation performance to maintain power generation efficiency. The following are several common types and characteristics of radiation resistant solar cells:

1、Silicon based solar cells (improved version)

1. Single crystal silicon solar cells

Features: Made of high-purity monocrystalline silicon material, with a complete crystal structure and strong radiation resistance. In a radiation environment, the lifetime of minority carriers decreases slowly and the performance degradation is relatively small.

Application: The main power source for early space satellites, such as the American Explorer series satellites.

Improvement direction: Further enhance radiation resistance by optimizing doping processes (such as phosphorus doping) or surface passivation techniques.

2. Silicon thin-film solar cells

Features: Thin thickness (micrometer level), low energy loss during radiation penetration, and low defect density in the thin film structure, reducing radiation-induced trap states.

Application: Flexible solar panels that can be used for spacecraft, such as some auxiliary power sources for the International Space Station.

2、Compound semiconductor solar cell

1. Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Solar Cells

Core advantages:

The bandgap width is moderate (1.42 eV), and in a radiation environment, the carrier recombination rate is low, resulting in better performance stability than silicon cells.

The radiation resistance is 3-5 times that of silicon batteries, especially under high-energy particle radiation (such as protons and electrons), the efficiency decay is slower.

Application: Mainstream space solar cells, such as power systems for Mars probes and communication satellites (such as GPS satellites).

Derivative type:

Triple junction GaAs battery: By using a stacked structure (a combination of materials with different bandgap widths), it can still maintain high conversion efficiency under radiation (laboratory efficiency can reach over 30%).

2. Cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells

Features: Bandgap width of 1.44 eV, similar to GaAs, good radiation resistance, and lower cost than GaAs.

Limitations: The radiation damage mechanism of CdTe is relatively complex, and its performance degradation under long-term strong radiation is slightly higher than that of GaAs. Currently, it is mostly used in low to medium radiation environments.

3. Indium phosphide (InP) solar cells

Advantages: Bandgap width of 1.35 eV, radiation resistance comparable to GaAs, and better stability in high-temperature environments.

Application: Suitable for strong radiation and high temperature scenarios such as deep space exploration (such as Jupiter probe).

3、New type of radiation resistant solar cell

1. Perovskite solar cells (improved radiation resistance)

Research direction:

By adding radiation shielding layers (such as metal oxide nanoparticles) or optimizing the crystal structure, the damage of radiation to the perovskite lattice can be reduced.

Currently, laboratory data shows that some modified perovskite cells can reduce their efficiency decay rate by more than 50% under beta radiation.

Challenge: Long term stability still needs to be verified and has not yet been widely applied.

2. Diamond based solar cells

Characteristics: The bandgap width of diamond is as high as 5.5 eV, and it has extremely strong radiation resistance (radiation dose can reach more than 100 times that of silicon).

Progress: In the theoretical research and experimental stage, the main difficulty lies in the high preparation cost and low photoelectric conversion efficiency (currently about 10%) of diamond films.

4、Key technologies for radiation protection design

Material optimization

Using high atomic number materials such as lead and tungsten as battery substrates or encapsulation layers to shield high-energy radiation.

Deposition of anti radiation coatings (such as silicon dioxide and silicon nitride) on the surface of batteries to reduce particle impact damage to the surface.

Structural improvement

Adopting a "back field structure": introducing highly doped regions on the back of the battery to enhance carrier collection capability and compensate for the decrease in minority carrier lifetime caused by radiation.

Design "redundant units": By parallel or series connecting multiple battery units, reduce the impact of individual unit damage on overall performance.

Anti radiation testing standards

The commonly used tests in the space field include proton radiation (energy 1-100 MeV) and electron radiation (energy 0.1-10 MeV), which must meet NASA's "Radiation Resistant Photovoltaic Device Testing Standards" and other specifications.

5、Typical application scenarios

Space exploration: The power systems of satellites, Mars rovers, and deep space probes (such as Voyager) need to resist the radiation of cosmic rays and solar wind.

Nuclear industry: The power supply for monitoring equipment around nuclear power plants needs to withstand gamma rays and neutron radiation.

Medical field: Portable power supplies for radiation therapy equipment must have X-ray resistance.

summarize

The most mature commercial application of anti radiation solar cells currently is gallium arsenide (GaAs) cells, especially suitable for space scenes; Silicon based batteries are still being used in low to medium radiation environments through improved processes; However, new types of batteries such as perovskite and diamond are still in the research and development stage and may become alternative solutions for high radiation environments in the future. When selecting, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the radiation type (particle radiation, electromagnetic radiation), dose, and power requirements of the application scenario.