Improvement of Radiation Resistance of Multijunction GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge Solar Cells with Application of Bragg Reflectors

Abstract

Feasibility to increase the radiation resistance of multijunction solar cells in using Bragg reflectors has been shown. Two designs of Bragg reflectors for multijunction solar cells, which allow ensuring in the Ga(In)As subcell base an effective collection of minority charge carriers at the decrease of their diffusion length caused by radiation treatment, have been investigated. Influence of subcells’ thicknesses of n-p GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge solar cell under 1 MeV electron irradiation with fluences up to 3•1015 cm–2 on short circuit current was considered. Optimal thicknesses of GaInP and GaInAs subcells with Bragg reflectors, depending on the rated operation period on the geostationary orbit, were estimated. It has been shown that such an optimization allows to achieve efficiency at long operation of solar cells on the orbit noticeably higher than that of non-optimized cells.