Improvement of radiation resistance of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction solar cell with GaInAs/GaAsP quantum wells

Abstract Introducing quantum wells (QWs) into a GaAs solar cell can expand its spectral response range to raise the short-circuit current (J sc). GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction (TJ) solar cells with strain-balanced InGaAs/GaAsP QWs in a GaInAs cell have been fabricated and irradiated by 1 MeV electron fluences. The AM0 efficiency of the TJ cell increases from 30% to 32% by inserting 30 period QWs. Under the electron irradiation condition of 1 MeV, 1 × 1015 cm−2, the radiation resistance of quantum well solar cells (QWSCs) is worse than that of the reference cell without QWs. The effect of QW doping on the radiation resistance of the 30 QWSC has been studied. After irradiation, the radiation resistance of J sc is improved by the unintentional doping of QWs, resulting in lower degradation of efficiency. An efficiency of 26.30% after irradiation is attained and this indicates that the QWSC has expectable potential to be applied to satellites.