Protons and Deuteron Irradiation Damage in Silicon Solar Cells

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Abstract
Damages inn-on-psilicon solar cells by proton and deuteron irradiations are investigated in the energy region of 0.8∼2.8 MeV as functions of the particle-mass, -energy, -fluence and also of the wave-length of the illuminating light. The damage rate due to deuteron irradiation is equivalent to that due to proton irradiation of about 1.8 times the fluence provided both particles have the same range in silicon. The most harmful proton energy to the degradation of short circuit currentISCshifts from the initial value of about 4 MeV down to about 3 MeV with increasing irradiation fluence. Under the illumination by near-infrared light, the degradation ofIsccan be approximated by a formula (Isc/Isc0)-2=8.6×10-12E(MeV)1.5\varPhi+1 in the energy region below the most harmful proton energy as far as the degradation is not very significant,i.e.,Isc/Isc0>0.7. These results can be interpreted satisfactorily by the analysis based on minority carrier diffusion equations in sub-divided multi-layers in the solar cell which take into account the non-uniformity of damages introduced by the irradiation.

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