Publication detail

Thermal stability of gallium arsenide solar cells

PAPEŽ, N. ŠKVARENINA, Ľ. TOFEL, P. SOBOLA, D.

Original Title

Thermal stability of gallium arsenide solar cells

Type

conference paper

Language

English

Original Abstract

This article summarizes a measurement of gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells during their thermal processing. These solar cells compared to standard silicon cells have better efficiency and high thermal stability. However, their use is partly limited due to high acquisition costs. For these reasons, GaAs cells are deployed only in the most demanding applications where their features are needed, such as space applications. In this work, GaAs solar cells were studied in a high temperature range within 30–650 ◦ C where their functionality and changes in surface topology were monitored. These changes were recorded using an electron microscope which determined the position of the defects; using an atomic force microscope we determined the roughness of the surface and an infrared camera that showed us the thermal radiated places of the defected parts of the cell. The electrical characteristics of the cells during processing were determined by its current-voltage characteristics. Despite the occurrence of subtle changes on the solar cell with newly created surface features after 300 ◦ C thermal processing, its current-voltage characteristic remained without a significant change.

Keywords

GaAs, AFM, SEM, I-V characteristics, thermal processing, roughness, morphology

Authors

PAPEŽ, N.; ŠKVARENINA, Ľ.; TOFEL, P.; SOBOLA, D.

Released

1. 12. 2017

ISBN

9781510617032

Book

Photonics, Devices, and Systems VII

ISBN

0277-786X

Periodical

Proceedings of SPIE

Year of study

10603

State

United States of America

Pages from

543

Pages to

548

Pages count

6

URL

BibTex

@inproceedings{BUT142449,
  author="Nikola {Papež} and Ľubomír {Škvarenina} and Pavel {Tofel} and Dinara {Sobola}",
  title="Thermal stability of gallium arsenide solar cells",
  booktitle="Photonics, Devices, and Systems VII",
  year="2017",
  journal="Proceedings of SPIE",
  volume="10603",
  pages="543--548",
  doi="10.1117/12.2292673",
  isbn="9781510617032",
  issn="0277-786X",
  url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2292673"
}