Degradation characteristics of electron and proton irradiated InGaAsP/InGaAs dual junction solar cell

The degradation characteristics of MOCVD grown InGaAsP/InGaAs dual junction solar cells, irradiated by 1 MeV electron, 3 MeV and 10 MeV proton, have been investigated. Main electrical and optical properties of solar cell degraded seriously with the increase of irradiation fluences due to the irradiation induced defects which are acting as non-radiative recombination centers in the active layers of the solar cell. The remaining factor of Pmax is 0.67, 0.53 and 0.51 for 1 MeV electron, 10 MeV proton, and 3 MeV proton irradiation, respectively, when the displacement damage dose (DDD) is 3.16×1010 MeV/g. The degradation of external quantum efficiency (EQE) of each subcell mainly occurred in the long wavelength region, the integrated current density Jsc of InGaAsP and InGaAs subcells degraded more seriously upon 3 MeV and 10 MeV proton irradiation comparing to 1 MeV electron irradiation. The InGaAsP subcell turned out to be the current limiting unit due to the lower Jsc before and post irradiation. By applying equivalent displacement damage dose model, the relative damage coefficient for 3 MeV proton to 10 MeV proton and 1 MeV electron to 10 MeV proton have been calculated. •InGaAsP/InGaAs solar cells are studied upon electron and proton irradiation.•Degradation characteristics of solar cell properties are studied.•Simulation results are applied for analysing irradiation induced defects.•Relative damage coefficient for electron to proton irradiation are calculated.