NEW APPROCH TO DETERMINE THE ACCURATE MINORITY CARRIER LIFETIME

Abstract

In the recent years, considerable research has been done on multijunction (MJ) solar cell. A monolithic MJ solar cell is composed of several junctions connected in series, all of which should be closely current matched for efficient photovoltaic device operation. The most successful implementation of this device is the InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple junction cell, attaining efficiencies in excess of 29 % AM0. The degradation of the cell characteristics under the high energy electron and proton irradiation depends on the semiconductor material and the specific solar cell structure. High energy particles lead to displacement damage and deep recombination centres reducing the minority carrier lifetime. In the present work, we present a new method, which allows to get exact value of the minority carrier lifetime and to apply this to p+/n InGaP solar cell material.