Publication detail

Degradation analysis of GaAs solar cells at thermal stress

PAPEŽ, N. SOBOLA, D. ŠKVARENINA, Ľ. ŠKARVADA, P. HEMZAL, D. TOFEL, P. GRMELA, L.

Original Title

Degradation analysis of GaAs solar cells at thermal stress

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

The work focuses on the study of the stability of structure and electrical parameters of commercially available photovoltaic cells based on GaAs with Ge substrate. Solar cells of this type are used especially in adverse environments such as space applications, so their working parameters should be stable even under extreme operating conditions. Solar cells were irradiated by focused ion beam (FIB). Artificial defects with different size were created for study of dependence of characteristics on presence of micro and nano defects in structure. Afterwards original and defected solar cells by FIB were studied at different temperatures, ranging from room temperature up to 350 °C. Changes of electrical characteristics of the cells were recorded in the form of noise measurements for examination of distinctions in the pn-junction and in the form of current-voltage characteristics in light and dark for comparison of the cells performance. Infrared camera showed the thermal irradiation of the stressed and damaged part and support to localize the defected areas. Atomic force microscope (AFM) was applied for observation of changes in three-dimensional topography with high resolution. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showed morphology of the solar cells and provided the elemental analysis of the samples. Raman spectroscopy provided a structural fingerprint and helped to evaluate influence of induced degradation methods. Variation of morphology and composition were compared, detected and well-observed, furthermore electrical measurements proved the solar cells to be stable under temperature stresses.

Keywords

AFM, SEM, FIB, EDX, Raman spectroscopy, noise, CV characteristics, GaAs, thermal annealing

Authors

PAPEŽ, N.; SOBOLA, D.; ŠKVARENINA, Ľ.; ŠKARVADA, P.; HEMZAL, D.; TOFEL, P.; GRMELA, L.

Released

17. 5. 2018

Publisher

Elsevier B.V.

ISBN

0169-4332

Periodical

Applied Surface Science

Number

461

State

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Pages from

212

Pages to

220

Pages count

9

BibTex

@article{BUT150541,
  author="Nikola {Papež} and Dinara {Sobola} and Ľubomír {Škvarenina} and Pavel {Škarvada} and Dušan {Hemzal} and Pavel {Tofel} and Lubomír {Grmela}",
  title="Degradation analysis of GaAs solar cells at thermal stress",
  journal="Applied Surface Science",
  year="2018",
  number="461",
  pages="212--220",
  doi="10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.05.093",
  issn="0169-4332"
}