Luminescence analysis of radiation effects in multijunction solar cells for space

Author

Sugimoto, Hiroki ; Tajima, Michio ; Hase, S. ; Imaizumi, Mitsuru

Author_Institution

Inst. of Space & Astronautical Sci., Japan Aerosp. Exploration Agency, Japan

fYear

2005

Firstpage

830

Lastpage

833

Abstract

Electron irradiation effects on each sub cell of InGaP₂/GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cells have been investigated by selective excitation photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) spectroscopy. PL intensity of band-edge emission from InGaP₂ cell hardly degraded after irradiation, while that of GaAs cell decreased considerably. The degradation rate of Ge cell was less than that of GaAs cell. Shape of PL spectra from GaAs cell changed dramatically. The degradation tendency in EL measurement was similar to PL spectroscopy. These findings showed clearly that GaAs cell has low radiation tolerance and InGaP₂ cell has fairly high radiation hardness. We also concluded Ge cell is superior in radiation tolerance to GaAs cell.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aerospace instrumentation; electroluminescence; electron beam effects; elemental semiconductors; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; germanium; indium compounds; photoluminescence; semiconductor junctions; solar cells; InGaP₂-GaAs-Ge; band-edge emission; electroluminescence; electron irradiation effects; multijunction solar cells; photoluminescence; radiation effects; radiation hardness; radiation tolerance; triple junction solar cells; Degradation; Electroluminescence; Electrons; Gallium arsenide; Luminescence; Photoluminescence; Photovoltaic cells; Radiation effects; Shape; Spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488261

Filename

1488261