Effects of He ion and electron beam irradiation on a CdTe solar cell dosimeter in a substrate configuration

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the effects of He ion and electron beam irradiation on substrate-type CdTe solar cells that are suitable for the detection of alpha and beta radiation are investigated. He ion irradiation revealed that the induced current proportionally increased with the increase of He ion current and that it is possible to detect alpha radiation using a substrate-type CdTe solar cell dosimeter. Next, the electron irradiation effects were investigated. The induced current proportional to the electron flux was also observed, and the sensitivity depended on the electron energy. In addition, the degradation of a substrate-type CdTe solar cell dosimeter by electron beam irradiation was investigated. No significant degradation in short-circuit current was observed at the electron irradiation of 3 × 1016 cm−2 at 200 keV and 1 × 1016 cm−2 at 400 keV. This result suggests that the substrate-type CdTe solar cell dosimeter is sufficiently resistant to electron irradiation.