Effects of low temperatures and intensities on GaAs and GaAs/Ge solar cells

GaAs and GaAs/Ge solar cells grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were characterized at very low temperature (-185°C) and solar intensity (0.25 suns) to simulate the cell behavior in a severe interplanetary environment. A comparison is also made with GaAs cells grown with the liquid-phase-epitaxy (LPE) technique. The analysis carried out from -185 to +50°C shows, in particular, different behaviors for GaAs/Ge cells with active and passive Ge substrates; the GaAs/Ge passive cell behaves as a GaAs on GaAs cell, indicating that from the thermal and optical point of view, Ge acts only as a mechanical support. The GaAs cell with an active Ga substrate is affected by a notch in the I-V curves, which is more evident at low temperatures but reduces at low intensities. The GaAs/GaAs MOCVD cell shows the best performance at low temperature and intensity with a conversion efficiency of 27.2%