The 1-MeV electron irradiation effect and damage mechanism analysis of GaInP/GaAs heterojunction solar cells

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ae0638

Abstract This study explore the radiation damage effects on GaInP/GaAs heterojunction (HJT) solar cells when subjected to 1-MeV electron irradiation. Light $I$-$V$ measurements show that $V_{\rm oc}$, $J_{\rm sc}$, and $P_{\rm max}$ of the cells exhibit a logarithmic degradation pattern with increasing electron irradiation fluence. Under identical irradiation conditions, the degradation of $J_{\rm sc}$ is substantially less pronounced than that of $V_{\rm oc}$. Under the same conditions, the heterojunction cell shows better radiation resistance, mainly as its $V_{\rm oc}$ degradation rate with fluence increase is lower than the homojunction cell. Spectral response analysis reveals that 1-MeV electron radiation mainly causes longwave zone damage in the GaInP/GaAs HJT cells, which intensifies as irradiation fluence accumulates. Dark characteristic analysis indicates that both recombination and diffusion currents in the cells rise with increasing irradiation fluence, with recombination current dominating the dark current. Deep level transient spectroscopy tests show that 1-MeV electron irradiation introduces four defects (H$_{1}$-H$_{4}$) in the cells, located at H$_{1}$ ($E_{\rm v}+0.717$ eV)/${\rm H}_{1}^{\ast }$ ($E_{\rm v}+0.744$ eV), H$_{2}$ ($E_{\rm v}+0.369 $ eV), H$_{3}$ ($E_{\rm v}+0.282 $ eV), and H$_{4}$ ($E_{\rm v}+0.032 $ eV). Among these, the concentration H$_{1}$ of defects increases most drastically with fluence and directly correlates with the rapid degradation of cell performance under high fluence, making it the crucial factor responsible for the swift degradation of GaInP/GaAs HJT cells under high fluence 1-MeV electron irradiation.

Keywords: 1-MeV electron radiation GaInP/GaAs HJT solar cell deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS)

Received: 10 July 2025
Revised: 18 August 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 12 September 2025

PACS:	88.40.jp	(Multijunction solar cells)
	88.40.H-	(Solar cells (photovoltaics))
	88.40.fh	(Advanced materials development)

Fund: Project supported by Shanghai Aerospace Science and Technology Innovation Fund (Grant No. SAST2024- 083), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U2341222, U2441248, 12275061, and 12075069), and the Fund for State Key Laboratory (Grant No. 6142806230204).

Corresponding Authors: Yanqing Zhang, Mingxue Huo
E-mail: yqzhang1983@hit.edu.cn;huomingxue@hit.edu.cn

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Kelun Zhao(赵克伦), Jiaming Zhou(周佳明), Yanqing Zhang(张延清), Qiang Kang(康强), Yang Liu(刘洋), Xinyi Li(李欣益), Chaoming Liu(刘超铭), Tianqi Wang(王天琦), and Mingxue Huo(霍明学) The 1-MeV electron irradiation effect and damage mechanism analysis of GaInP/GaAs heterojunction solar cells 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 048801

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The 1-MeV electron irradiation effect and damage mechanism analysis of GaInP/GaAs heterojunction solar cells

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