Modelling the Effect of 1 MeV Electron Irradiation on the Performance Degradation of a Single Junction AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs Solar Cell

We have modelled the effect of 1 MeV electron irradiation on the performance degradation of a single junction AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs solar cell. The irradiation-induced defectsresult in energy states within the energy gap of the semiconductors. In this paper, we first model the effect of 1 MeV electron irradiation for the electron fluences from 1×1014to 1×1016 e/cm2 using the parameters of the irradiation-induced defects on the performance degradation of a solar cell. Then wepresent the results of a study for the effect of the layer thickness on the performance degradation of the solar cell. We will showthat by choosing appropriate thickness for the layers, it is possible to considerably reduce the performance degradation ofthe solar cell

Keywords:

Electron irradiation , Performance degradation , Single junction AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs solar cell , Irradiation-induced defects