Comparative study on degradation characteristics of component subcells in IMM triple-junction solar cells irradiated with high-energy electrons and protons

IMM三接合太陽電池の構成サブセルの高エネルギー電子線照射及び陽子線照射劣化

今泉 充*; 中村 徹哉*; 田島 道夫*; 佐藤 真一郎; 大島 武

Imaizumi, Mitsuru*; Nakamura, Tetsuya*; Tajima, Michio*; Sato, Shinichiro; Oshima, Takeshi

逆積み格子不整合型(IMM)三接合太陽電池の構成要素である、InGaP, GaAs, InGaAs(In=20%), InGaAs(In=30%)単接合太陽電池の10MeV陽子線及び1MeV電子線による劣化を調べ、その放射線耐性を比較した。単接合太陽電池の放射線耐性の比較は、宇宙用IMM三接合太陽電池の設計、開発にあたって不可欠な知見である。比較の結果、InGaP単接合太陽電池が最も耐性が高いことがわかった。一方で、InGaAs単接合太陽電池はその性能の指標となる短絡電流(Isc)の劣化が他の太陽電池と比べて顕著であり、特に電子線に対して耐性が低く、陽子線に対してはGaAs太陽電池と同程度の耐性を示すことがわかった。

Radiation response of InGaP, GaAs, InGaAs (In=20%) and InGaAs (In=30%) single-junction solar cells, which are the component sbcells of IMM3J cells, were comparatively studied. High-energy electrons (1 MeV) and protons (10 MeV) were irradiated to the four types of the cells. The InGaP cell has the highest radiation resistance to both electrons and protons amongst the four cells as expected. On the other hand, the InGaAs cells have less resistant for Isc compared to InGaP and GaAs cells. However, the resistance of Voc of InGaAs cells is comparable to that of the other two cells. As a general result, InGaAs cells have less radiation resistance to electrons, while they have the resistance against protons equivalent to GaAs cell. These radiation response properties of InGaAs cells are thought to be useful to design radiation resistant IMM3J space solar cells.