Radiation damage and defect behavior in ion-implanted, lithium counterdoped silicon solar cells

Conference · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984 · Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5155938

Weinberg, I; Mehta, S; Swartz, C K

Boron-doped silicon n/sup +/p solar cells were counterdoped with lithium by ion implantation and the resultant n/sup +/p cells irradiated by 1 MeV electrons. Performance parameters were determined as a function of fluence and a Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) study was conducted in order to correlate defect behavior with cell performance. It was found that the lithium counterdoped cells exhibited significantly increased radiation resistance when compared to boron doped control cells. Isochronal annealing studies of cell performance indicate that significant annealing occurs at 100/sup 0/C. Isochronal annealing of the deep level defects showed a correlation between a single defect at E /sub v+/ .43 eV and the annealing behavior of short circuit current in the counterdoped cells. It was concluded that the annealing behavior was controlled by dissociation and recombination of this defect. The DLTS studies also showed that counterdoping with lithium eliminated at least three deep level defects and resulted in three new defects. It was speculated that the increased radiation resistance of the counterdoped cells is due primarily to the interaction of lithium with oxygen, single vacancies and divacancies and that the lithium-oxygen interaction is the most effective in contributing to the increased radiation resistance.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio
• OSTI ID: 5155938
• Report Number(s): CONF-840561-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf.; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
440200 -- Radiation Effects on Instrument Components
Instruments
or Electronic Systems
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALKALI METALS
BORON
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
CRYSTAL DOPING
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
EQUIPMENT
FERMIONS
ION IMPLANTATION
IRRADIATION
JUNCTIONS
LEPTONS
LITHIUM
MATERIALS
METALS
MEV RANGE
MEV RANGE 01-10
P-N JUNCTIONS
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
RADIATION EFFECTS
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT