Illumination-induced recovery of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells after high-energy electron irradiation

Abstract

Cu ( In , Ga ) Se 2 / CdS / ZnO solar cells irradiated with a 1 MeV electron fluence of 1018 cm−2 degrade to about 80% of their initial conversion efficiency. Illumination with white light at an intensity of 100 mW cm−2 for 3 h at room temperature restores more than 90% of the preirradiation efficiency. The healing process is more efficient if the device is kept under open-circuit conditions during illumination than for short-circuit conditions. Injecting minority carriers by voltage bias in the dark, instead of illumination, does not cause enduring device recovery. This behavior of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 is in contrast to illumination-induced defect healing processes reported for other semiconductor materials, like GaAs, InP, or GaP.

Effect of illumination and frequency on the capacitance spectroscopy and the relaxation process of p-ZnTe/n-CdMnTe/GaAs magnetic diode for photocapacitance applications

“…It is interesting to note that after irradiation of the prepared heterostructure device with light, a considerable increase of the junction capacitance because of the increase of the number of radiation induced deep defects in the material [25]. Due to thermal annealing [26] and/or illumination with light [27], these defects heal out restoring to a large extend the initial device performance.…”

Electroluminescence efficiency degradation of crystalline silicon solar cells after irradiation with protons in the energy range between 0.8 MeV and 65 MeV

“…The charge carrier diffusion length is thereby found to be, in the limited fluence range investigated in this study, proportial to the square root of the proton fluence value. It should be mentioned that amorphous silicon [24] and CIGS [25] and CdTe [26] solar cells are of course much less sensitive to proton irradiation, but nevertheless, silicon solar cells continue to be used widely in space applications. The information on the low energy proton degradation can be useful for the evaluation of silicon photonics device degradation under particle irradiation, which may also be in future applied in space.…”

Radiation Hardness and Self‐Healing of Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Depending on exposition and distance from earth the particle flux varies between 10 3 and 10 8 particles cm −2 s −1 . Hence, a dose of 10 13 particles cm −2 can be reached in about 1 d. This has been shown to have a tremendous effect on the power conversion efficiency of silicon, InGaP, GaAs, and InP solar cells that are commonly used in space . For example, the Equator‐S Mission, equipped with a GaAs/Ge solar cell reported a reduction in efficiency of around 10% after 30 d in the low earth orbit .…”

“…For example, the Equator‐S Mission, equipped with a GaAs/Ge solar cell reported a reduction in efficiency of around 10% after 30 d in the low earth orbit . Interestingly, one of the most radiation resistant solar‐cell absorber materials, namely, copper‐indium‐gallium diselenide (CIGS) is rarely used due to its moderate power‐conversion efficiency . A thin‐film tandem solar cell comprising of a CIGS bottom junction and a perovskite top junction seems to be an ideal candidate to overcome this limitation.…”