Investigation of the Nanostructures on Solar Cells Exposed on Orbital Space Station "MIR"

Nanostructures formed on the cover-glass surfaces of the solar cells which worked in space for more than 10 years as component of orbital station "Mir" have been investigated by means of atomic force microscopy. It is found that the nanostructures are present on all vertical scales of visualization: from ~1000 nm up to ~17 nm and on horizontal scales from ~1000 nm up to ~100 nm. Examination of mechanical properties of the exposed cover-glass surface in nanoscale has been carried out by a nanoindentation method with measuring complex NanoTest 600. Under load above ~0,04 mN up to ~10 mN the nanoindentation shows the essential distinction in mechanical properties between the exposed and nonexposed cover-glass surfaces.