The improvements of the AlGaAs solar cell grown on the Si substrate and the AlGaAs/Si tandem solar cell by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition have been investigated. The active-area conversion efficiency of the Al0.1Ga0.9As solar cell on the Si substrate as high as 12.9% has been obtained by improving the growth sequence and adopting an Al compositionally graded band emitter layer. A high efficiency monolithic AlGaAs/Si tandem solar cell with the active-area conversion efficiency of 19.9% and 20.6% (AM0 and 1 sun at 27 °C) under two-terminal and four-terminal configurations, respectively, is demonstrated.

We have examined proton irradiation damage in high-energy (1–10 MeV) and high-fluence (≳1013 cm−2) Si n+-p-p+ structure space solar cells. Radiation testing has revealed an anomalous increase in short-circuit current Isc followed by an abrupt decrease and cell failure, induced by high-fluence proton irradiation. We propose a model to explain these phenomena by expressing the change in carrier concentration p of the base region as a function of the proton fluence in addition to the well-known model where the short-circuit current is decreased by minority-carrier lifetime reduction after irradiation. The reduction in carrier concentration due to majority-carrier trapping by radiation-induced defects has two effects. First, broadening of the depletion layer increases both the generation–recombination current and also the contribution of the photocurrent generated in this region to the total photocurrent. Second, the resistivity of the base layer is increased, resulting in the abrupt decrease in the short circuit current and failure of the solar cells.

A world-record efficiency of 30.28% has been attained for two-terminal monolithic In0.5Ga0.5P/GaAs tandem solar cells under one-sun air-mass 1.5 global illumination. The cell area has a practical size of 4 cm2. At first, high efficiency In0.5Ga0.5P single junction cells had been developed by improving the minority carrier lifetime. Second, the GaAs single junction cells had been investigated to obtain higher open-circuit voltage. Third, the tandem cell performance had been improved by using an InGaP tunnel junction with AlInP barriers which constitute a double-hetero structure and increase the peak current of the tunnel junction. In addition, the AlInP barrier located beneath the InGaP top cell have been found to be effective for reflecting minority carriers in the top cell and for suppressing the diffusion of zinc from the highly doped tunnel junction toward the top cell during epitaxial growth.

A monolithic GaAs/Si tandem solar cell which consists of a p+-n GaAs top cell and an n+-p-p+ Si bottom cell is fabricated by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The conversion efficiency of the top cell is increased by improvement of the solar cell structure (adoption of a graded band emitter layer) and optimization of the growth conditions (increase of the thermal annealing temperature and the growth temperature). By combining the conversion efficiencies of the GaAs top cell (16.0%) and Si bottom cell (3.9%), the active-area conversion efficiency of 19.9% (AM0, 1 sun) has been obtained in the three-terminal configuration.

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