Modelling the effect of 1 MeV electron irradiation on the performance degradation of a single junction Al<inf>x</inf>Ga<inf>1−x</inf>As/GaAs solar cell

We have modelled the effect of 1 MeV electron irradiation on the performance degradation of a single junction Al _x Ga _1-x As/GaAs solar cell. The irradiation-induced defects result in energy states within the energy gap of the semiconductors. In this paper, we first model the effect of 1 MeV electron irradiation for the electron fluences from 1×10 ¹⁴ to 1×10 ¹⁶ e/cm ² using the parameters of the irradiation-induced defects on the performance degradation of a solar cell. Then we present the results of a study for the effect of the layer thickness on the performance degradation of the solar cell. We will show that by choosing appropriate thickness for the layers, it is possible to considerably reduce the performance degradation of the solar cell.