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Improved performance of p/n InP solar cells

Book ·
OSTI ID:304381
; ;  [1]
  1. Essential Research, Inc., Cleveland, OH (United States); and others
The high electrical conversion performance and radiation resistance of InP solar cells were discovered during the last decade. The combination of these two characteristics make InP a very attractive material for space solar cells. To date, the best performance results for both homo-epitaxial and hetero-epitaxial InP solar cells were achieved using a n/p configuration. The p/n configuration is desirable for hetero-epitaxial growth on inexpensive, strong, light weight, group IV substrates such as Si and Ge. The authors have succeeded in developing p/n configuration homo-epitaxy InP solar cells with beginning-of-life AMO efficiency values exceeding 17.6%. The high efficiency values resulted from improved emitter performance due to a reduction of Zn interstitial defects in the p-type emitter. Preliminary 3 MeV proton irradiation resistance data are presented which show the high efficiency p/n cells retain 75% of beginning-of-life power after 7 {times} 10{sup 11} protons/cm{sup 2} fluence.
OSTI ID:
304381
Report Number(s):
CONF-970953--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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