Electrical performance degradation of GaAs solar cells with InGaAs quantum dot layers due to proton irradiation

The degradation behaviors of GaAs PiN solar cells with and without quantum dot (QD) layers due to proton irradiation were compared. The GaAs PiN structures either with or without 50 self-aligned In_0.4Ga_0.6As layers were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). The QD and non QD solar cells were irradiated with 150 keV and 3 MeV protons, and their electrical performance under AM0 was in-situ measured. Annealing behavior of the electrical characteristics at room temperature was also investigated after the proton irradiation.