Investigation of radiation resistance of heterostructure silicon solar cells

V. S. Kalinovskii^a, E. I. Terukov^ab, K. K. Prudchenko^a, A. A. Bazeley^b, E. V. Kontrosh^a, I. A. Tolkachov^a, A. A. Titov<sup>b

a</sup> Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
^b R&D Center TFTE, St. Petersburg, Russia

Abstract: The radiation resistance of different types of heterostructural silicon solar cells under irradiation with 1 MeV electrons in the fluence range 2.5 $\cdot$ 10$^{14}$–1 $\cdot$ 10$^{15}$ cm$^{-2}$ has been studied. Studies have shown that the smallest degradation of the “saturation” currents of the diffusion current flow mechanism from $J_{0d}\le$ 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-13}$ A/сm$^2$ to $J_{0d}\le$ 3 $\cdot$ 10$^{-12}$ A/сm$^2$ and efficiency from 19.2 to 13.6% (AM0, 1367 W/m$^2$) were $n$–$\alpha$-Si:H/$c$–$p$(Ga)/$p$–$\alpha$-Si:H and $n$–$\mu c$-Si:H/$c$–$p$(Ga)/$p$–$\alpha$-Si:H. The results obtained make it possible to evaluate the prospects for the use of heterostructure silicon solar cells for low-orbit spacecraft.

Keywords: heterostructure silicon solar cells, saturation currents, efficiency, radiation resistance, 1 MeV electrons, low orbit satellite communication.

Received: 31.03.2023
Revised: 07.06.2023
Accepted: 08.06.2023

DOI: 10.21883/PJTF.2023.16.55962.19573

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