TY - GEN
T1 - High temperature characterization of GaAs single junction solar cells
AU - Maros, Aymeric
AU - Gangam, Srikanth
AU - Fang, Yi
AU - Smith, Justin
AU - Vasileska, Dragica
AU - Goodnick, Stephen
AU - Bertoni, Mariana
AU - Honsberg, Christiana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2015/12/14
Y1 - 2015/12/14
N2 - We report temperature-dependent characterization of the electrical and optical properties of GaAs single junction solar cells up to 450 °C. An external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 75% was maintained at temperatures up to 300 °C, with a corresponding increase in the absorption edge as a function of wavelength due to the decrease in band gap with temperature, in agreement with theory. Above 300 °C, the EQE decreased strongly as the temperature was further increased. This drop in EQE resulted in a corresponding decrease in short-circuit current, also observed in the I-V characteristics as a function of temperature. When cooled back to room temperature the short-circuit current nearly fully recovers whereas the open-circuit voltage is found to be irreversibly degraded. The origin of the degradation is discussed. Modeling is used to support the experimental results.
AB - We report temperature-dependent characterization of the electrical and optical properties of GaAs single junction solar cells up to 450 °C. An external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 75% was maintained at temperatures up to 300 °C, with a corresponding increase in the absorption edge as a function of wavelength due to the decrease in band gap with temperature, in agreement with theory. Above 300 °C, the EQE decreased strongly as the temperature was further increased. This drop in EQE resulted in a corresponding decrease in short-circuit current, also observed in the I-V characteristics as a function of temperature. When cooled back to room temperature the short-circuit current nearly fully recovers whereas the open-circuit voltage is found to be irreversibly degraded. The origin of the degradation is discussed. Modeling is used to support the experimental results.
KW - GaAs
KW - Space solar cells
KW - current-voltage
KW - photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar systems
KW - quantum efficiency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961620248&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356338
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356338
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84961620248
T3 - 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
BT - 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 42nd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2015
Y2 - 14 June 2015 through 19 June 2015
ER -