Low temperature effects in photovoltaic devices for deep space missions

Hoheisel, R.; Walters, Robert J.; Bett, Andreas W.

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2015.7355666

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…Recently, a deviation from the ideal 2‐diode model in the DIV curve was reported for electron‐irradiated triple junction, Ga 0.5 In 0.5 P and Ge cells at a temperature of 123K. The increase in the dark current observed under these low intensity and low temperature (LILT) conditions was attributed to tunnel‐assisted recombination in the space charge region . Therefore, it is of interest to check whether a similar effect can be observed for the GaAs cells in this study as well.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 55%

Voltage‐dependent photocurrent in irradiated GaAs solar cells

Salzberger

Rutzinger

Nomayr

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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GaAs single junction cells, representative of the middle cell in triple junction Ga 0.5 In 0.5 P/GaAs/Ge cells, were irradiated with various fluences of 1-and 3-MeV electrons as well as 1-MeV protons.The light I-V curves measured at room temperature exhibit a voltage-dependent photocurrent.The photocurrent is modeled taking into account the voltage-dependent width of the space charge region in combination with a strongly decreased minority carrier diffusion length. By extracting the width of the space charge region from capacitance measurements and the base layer diffusion length from the external quantum efficiency of the cell, the experimental behavior is reproduced accurately.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 55%

Voltage‐dependent photocurrent in irradiated GaAs solar cells

Salzberger

Rutzinger

Nomayr

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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“…Because the excess current is not temperature dependent and because its amplitude increases (to some extent) with the defect concentration, we ascribe it to a tunneling effect [4][5]. Fig.…”

Section: Origin Of the Excess Currentmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…These cells are also selected for deep space missions [2][3][4]. In this respect, it is necessary to determine the temperature dependence of their electrical characteristics, in particular following electron and proton irradiations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of the Degradation of Triple Junction Solar Cells at low Temperature

et al. 2017

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The degradation of solar cells under irradiation by high energy particles (electrons, protons) is the consequence of the introduction of defects trapping minority carriers, which are then not collected by the junction. However, at low temperature, defects located in the space charge region can also induce a tunneling current that results in an apparent decreases of the maximum power. The degradation produced by this tunneling current can depend on temperature, since the concentration of defects created by an irradiation is usually temperature dependent, and can be larger than the degradation associated with carrier recombination. For instance, as we shall see below, an irradiation with 1 MeV electrons at 120 K with a fluence of 3.0 x 10 15 /cm 2 induces a decrease of less than 10 % in the short-circuit current (ISC) and open-circuit voltage (VOC) of triple junction (TJ) cells, but a decrease of about 40 % in the maximum power (PMAX), which implies that more than half of the total degradation of PMAX should be assigned to another loss mechanism, tunneling in this case. In this work, we demonstrate that this additional degradation must indeed be ascribed to a tunneling process and we investigate the variation of the tunneling current versus fluence induced by electron irradiation in TJ cells, in order to tentatively ascribe the tunneling components to specific sub-cells.

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“…3. This effect and its scatter is related to tunnelling effects that become the dominating contributors of the dark current at low temperatures [4]. …”

Section: Figure 2 Low Intensity (37%am0) IV Characteristics Of Liltmentioning

confidence: 99%

BOL and EOL Characterization of Azur 3G Lilt Solar Cells for ESA Juice Mission

et al. 2017

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In the present paper, we describe the results of electrical characterization of AZUR SPACE triple-junction solar cells at a sun light intensity of 3.7% AM0 and temperatures down to -150°C. At these conditions, which are relevant for the anticipated ESA JUICE mission, the cell efficiency reaches 33.5 % at BOL. Special attention has been paid to the establishing of an in-situ characterization procedure for defining EOL cell characteristics after electron and proton irradiation at low temperature low intensity condition. It was shown that solar cells irradiated at low temperature exhibit a strong recovery effect within short time after stopping the irradiation whereas the absolute value of the recovery depends on the irradiation fluence and particle type. Further on, it was demonstrated that the degradation of the maximum power, Pmp, is much stronger than the degradation of Isc and Voc values. Experimentally defined remaining factors for electron and proton irradiation and the quantification of the observed recovery effects allow a realistic prediction of the solar cell performance at JUICE mission conditions and are essential for the planned solar cell qualification activities.

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Low temperature effects in photovoltaic devices for deep space missions

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 publications

Voltage‐dependent photocurrent in irradiated GaAs solar cells

Voltage‐dependent photocurrent in irradiated GaAs solar cells

Origin of the Degradation of Triple Junction Solar Cells at low Temperature

BOL and EOL Characterization of Azur 3G Lilt Solar Cells for ESA Juice Mission

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