Radiation Damage Analysis of Individual Subcells for GaInP/GaAs/Ge Solar Cells Using Photoluminescence Measurements

The radiation damage of three individual subcells for GalnP/GaAs//Ge triple-junction solar cells irradiated with electrons and protons is investigated using photoluminescence （PL） measurements. The PL spectra of each subcell are obtained using different excitation lasers. The PL intensity has a fast degradation after irradiation, and decreases as the displacement damage dose increases. Furthermore, the normalized PL intensity varying with the displacement damage dose is analyzed in detail, and then the lifetime damage coefficients of the recombination centers for GaInP top-cell, GaAs mid-cell and Ge bottom-cell of the triple-junction solar cells are determined from the PL radiative efficiency.

Effects of 50keV and 100keV Proton Irradiation on GaInP/GaAs/Ge Triple-Junction Solar Cells

GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells were irradiated with 50 keV and 100 keV protons at fluences of 5 × 10^10 cm^-2, 1 × 10^11 cm^-2,1 × 10^12 cm^-2, and 1 × 10^13 cm^-2. Their performance degradation is analyzed using current-voltage characteristics and spectral response measurements, and then the changes in Isc, Voc, Pmax and the spectral response of the cells are observed as functions of proton irradiation fluence and energy. The results show that the spectral response of the top cell degrades more significantly than that of the middle cell, and 100 keV proton-induced degradation rates of Isc, Voc and Pmax are larger compared with 50 keV proton irradiation.

Photoluminescence Analysis of Electron Damage for Minority Carrier Diffusion Length in GaInP/GaAs/Ge Triple-Junction Solar Cells

Photoluminescence（PL） measurements are carried out to investigate the degradation of GaInP top cell and GaAs middle cell for GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells irradiated with 1.0, 1.8 and 11.5 MeV electrons with fluences ranging up to 3 × 10^15, 1 × 10^15 and 3 × 10^14 cm^-2, respectively. The degradation rates of PL intensity increase with the electron fluence and energy. Furthermore, the damage coefficient of minority carrier diffusion length is estimated by the PL radiative efficiency. The damage coefficient increases with the electron energy. The relation of damage coefficient to electron energy is discussed with the non-ionizing energy loss（NIEL）, which shows a quadratic dependence between damage coefficient and NIEL.

GaInP/GaInAs/GaInNAs/Ge Four-Junction Solar Cell Grown by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition with High Efficiency

We directly grow a lattice matched GalnP/GalnAs/GalnNAs/Ge （1.88 eVil .42 eVil .05 eV/0.67eV） four-junction （4J） solar cell on a Ge substrate by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition technology. To solve the current limit of the GalnNAs sub cell, we design three kinds of anti-reflection coatings and adjust the base region thickness of the GalnNAs sub cell. Developed by a series of experiments, the external quantum efficiency of the GalnNAs sub cell exceeds 80%, and its current density reaches 11.24 mA/cm2. Therefore the current limit of the 4J solar cell is significantly improved. Moreover, we discuss the difference of test results between 4J and GalnP/GalnAs/Ge solar cells under the 1 sun AMO spectrum.

Optimizing back surface field for improving V_(oc) of (Al)GaInP solar cell

GaInP and AlGaInP solar cells were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition（MOCVD）, and theoretical analysis demonstrated that hetero-interface recombination velocity plays an important role in the optimizing of cell performance, especially the interface between base layer and back surface field（BSF）. Measurements including lattice-matched growth and pseudo-BSF were taken to optimize BSF design. Significant improvement of Vocin GaInP and AlGaInP solar cells imply that the measures we took are effective and promising for performance improvement in the next generation high efficiency solar cells.