摘要： Solar cells made with nanowires can tolerate up to 40 times as much high-energy radiation as those made of flat crystalline films, making the nano versions well suited for powering satellites and spacecraft. Harry A. Atwater of the California Institute of Technology and colleagues fabricated solar cells with a light-absorbing layer made of an array of either 3 μm long gallium arsenide or 2 μm long indium phosphide nanowires grown vertically from the substrate. The researchers irradiated the devices with protons at 100 and 350 keV, comparable to what they would experience in space. Compared with thin-film solar cells made from the same materials, the nanowire solar cells withstood 10–40 times as many protons before their current degraded. Simulations showed that energetic protons shoot out of nanowires, minimizing damage, while they lodge in crystalline films. The researchers think that the higher surface area of the nanowires makes it easier for defects to migrate out of the structures.