Rapid Photonic Processing of Flexible Printed Perovskite Solar Cells for Space Applications

Abstract

Printed flexible perovskite solar cells (PFPSCs) have emerged as a promising lightweight, durable, and high-specific-power energy source for Earth and space applications. Nevertheless, their large-scale commercialization remains limited by conventional thermal annealing processes, which are time-consuming, energy intensive, and less suitable for high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing. In this work, intense pulsed light (IPL) annealing, also referred to as photonic processing, was investigated as a rapid post-treatment alternative to conventional hot- plate (HP) annealing for the fabrication of PFPSCs. Perovskite photo-absorber layers processed under non-annealed (NA), HP annealed, and optimized IPL annealed techniques were systematically compared in terms of structural, optical, electronic, photovoltaic, operational stability, and radiation resistance properties. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of the desired ��- phase perovskite structure for all samples, while a PbI 2 impurity peak was detected in HP film. The optimized IPL films exhibited enhanced photoluminescence intensity, prolonged charge carrier lifetime, and improved optoelectronic quality. As a result, the IPL-processed devices achieved the highest average power conversion efficiency of approximately 12.0% outperforming HP (11.0%) and NA (6.5%) counterparts. In addition, IPL devices demonstrated improved mechanical robustness and enhanced photostability, while retaining radiation tolerance comparable to HP devices following heavy-ion irradiation. These findings establish photonic processing as a rapid and effective alternative to conventional thermal annealing, with strong potential for scalable roll-to-roll manufacturing of flexible photovoltaic devices for both Earth-based and aerospace applications.