Study on the series resistance of betavoltaic batteries

Abstract Series resistance ( R s ) is an essential factor that affects the performance of betavoltaic batteries. However, the R s value of betavoltaic batteries tends to be anomaly high when it is extracted from the IV characteristic curve. To explore the reasons for this phenomenon, different injection conditions and their impacts on R s of betavoltaic and photovoltaic cells were compared and analyzed, since photovoltaic cells have been studied in-depth in respect of R s and have similar principles to betavoltaic batteries. The results show that R s will be significantly affected by the injection conditions, and the high resistance of the depletion region under low-level radiation injection of betavoltaic batteries is the main reason for their high R s . The effect of high R s on betavoltaic battery performance was further explored, and the results show that the IV characteristic curve will be distorted obviously when R s is close to or higher than the shunt resistance. This thus leads to a significant decrease in the battery’s fill factor and energy conversion efficiency. The effect of the input power on R s should be considered in the future analysis of betavoltaic batteries. This work provides theoretical support for the parameter analysis of betavoltaic batteries.