Improving Radiation Resistance of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge Triple-Junction Solar Cells Using GaInP Back-Surface Field in the Middle Subcell

• Published in: Materials Vol. 13; no. 8; p. 1958
• Main Authors: Gao, Hui, Yang, Ruixia, Zhang, Yonghui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22-04-2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Aluminum gallium arsenides; back-surface field; Degradation; Efficiency; electron beam irradiation; Electron beams; GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction space solar cell; Gallium indium phosphide; Indium gallium arsenides; Irradiation; Organic chemicals; Photovoltaic cells; radiation resistance; Radiation tolerance; Simulation; Solar cells; United States > US; back-surface field; GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction space solar cell; electron beam irradiation; radiation resistance
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/MA13081958

This paper studies the radiation resistance for GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction space solar cells with a GaInP back-surface field (BSF) in the GaInAs middle subcell compared with those with an AlGaAs BSF. The results show that the initial electrical performance is almost the same for both of them. However, the radiation resistance of the GaInP BSF cell was improved. After irradiation by 1 MeV electron beam with a cumulative dose of 10
e/cm
, the
declined by 4.73% and 6.61% for the GaInP BSF cell and the AlGaAs BSF cell, respectively; the efficiency degradation was 13.64% and 14.61% for the GaInP BSF cell and the AlGaAs BSF cell, respectively, leading to a reduced degradation level of 6%. The mechanism for GaInP BSF to improve the radiation resistance of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells is also discussed in this work. Similar results were obtained when irradiation cumulative doses varied from 1 × 10
e/cm
to 1 × 10
e/cm
.