Appendix D: All-metal-oxide p-n photovoltaic junctions fabricated using materials abundant in the Martian regolith

We propose fabricating all-metal-oxide photovoltaic devices using materials that are abundant in the Martian regolith. We are applying under Appendix D: NASA SMD Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS). Specifically, the hypothesis motivating this proposal falls under the research focus section c. Studies of the extracted material to determine its properties or to investigate novel ways of utilizing it to support NASA’s exploration goals. The long-range goal of this investigation is to develop a method for fabricating photovoltaic devices using minimally-processed in-situ resources available on Mars and fabrication techniques amenable to the Martian environment to support NASA’s mission goals. To achieve our long-range goal, we will fabricate and characterize p-n homojunction photovoltaic devices using hematite (α-Fe2O3) as the n-type semiconductor substrate and a recently discovered Fe0.84Cr1.0Al0.16O3 metal-oxide alloy as the p-type semiconductor substrate. Hematite and the elements Fe, Cr, and Al are all abundant in the Martian regolith and will serve as the light-absorbing layers in the p-n homojunction photovoltaic devices. The objective of this proposal is to characterize the n-type α-Fe2O3 and p-type Fe0.84 Cr1.0 Al0.16 O3 materials and photovoltaic devices made from them. Specifically, we will quantify: optical properties, donor density, flat band potential, current-voltage characteristics, and incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE). Our central hypothesis is that, once the properties of the individual metal oxides are known, p-n photovoltaic device architectures can be designed and fabricated to circumvent the undesirable characteristics often encountered in all-metal-oxide photovoltaic devices such as: short carrier diffusion lengths, short excited state lifetimes, and the resulting low IPCE values. Our preliminary data shows that solution-processed all-metal-oxide photovoltaics of n-type α-Fe2O3/p-type Fe0.84 Cr1.0 Al0.16 O3 do generate a photocurrent under white light illumination. Our proposal is focused on answering fundamental questions to provide insight into strategies for improving the efficiency of these photovoltaic devices and addressing the challenge of using minimally-processed Martian resources as the feedstock for fabricating these devices.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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