Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposited Thin Films for Space Photovoltaics

Novel scalable aerosol-assisted CVD route for perovskite solar cells

“…The resulting champion device had a PCE of 5.4%, and whilst this is low compared to the state-of-the-art perovskite devices, it is the highest PCE recorded for any PV device utilising an AACVD active layer. 45 Furthermore, we show evidence of a unique multi-step film formation process, with the films forming a PbI 2 intermediate phase before converting to MAPI. Overall, we have demonstrated that exploring wider precursor-solvent systems is a promising route to successfully fabricate PSCs via AACVD, and that identification of further systems that do not undergo such dramatic density changes may be the key to achieving high PCEs via AACVD.…”

Tunable structural, morphological and optical properties of undoped, Mn, Ni and Ag-doped CuInS2 thin films prepared by AACVD

“…Notwithstanding the attractive features of CIS, controlled deposition of high quality thin films remains a challenge, and this along with insufficiency of scalable cost-effective deposition methods are obstacles toward commercialization of CIS based solar cells. Of the variety of deposition methods available, aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD), the advantages of which have been reported 2,[14][15][16][17][18] has the potential to address the synthetic challenge. Nonetheless, there are several reports highlighting challenges with depositing high quality thin films using CVD, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), low-pressure-MOCVD and AACVD.…”

“…Nonetheless, there are several reports highlighting challenges with depositing high quality thin films using CVD, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), low-pressure-MOCVD and AACVD. [18][19][20][21] In these, thin films were deposited from various molecular precursors, for example asymmetrical dialkyldithiocarbamates, 19 bis(ethylisobutylacetates), tris(N,N-ethylbutyldithiocarbamates) 21 and single-source precursors such as [Bu2In-(SiPr)Cu(S2CNiPr2)] 20 and [(PPh3)2Cu(SEt)2In(SEt)2]. 18 Typically, films were non-stoichiometric, polyphasic (e.g.…”

Ultra-Lightweight Hybrid Thin-Film Solar Cells: A Survey of Enabling Technologies for Space Power Applications

“…7,8,[37][38][39][40] In the next two sections of this publication, we describe efforts to process polymer and inorganic materials to produce solar cells for the purpose of manufacturing solar arrays. Developing processes for use of lightweight polymer substrates mandates an understanding of the impact of thermal degradation on polymers under relevant conditions.…”

“…The NASA/OAI group has undertaken a thermal materials study of potential metallized substrates from Techni-Met, Inc. to determine their viability for use in a low temperature solar cell fabrication process such as spray assisted CVD. 8,38,40 Thermal decomposition data were collected via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of five thin film polymer coupons (polyimide (Upilex) * and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)), see table III. Several runs were performed on each type of coupon until all decomposition onset temperature (Upilex samples only) data was within ±5%.…”