GALLIUM ANTIMONIDE INFRARED SOLAR-CELLS WITH IMPROVED EFFICIENCY AND MANUFACTURABILITY

Mechanically-stacked gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium antimonide (GaSb) concentrator solar cells have achieved the highest photovoltaic receiver efficiency to date. This paper describes a new process for GaSb infrared cells that has produced cells with higher efficiency, manufacturability and yield. Cells with efficiency of 6.6% under a GaAs filter have been demonstrated at 50X AM0. These cells were exposed to 1 MeV protons, and were shown to have higher end-of-life efficiencies than the previous cells. V-grooving the front surface resulted in slightly higher radiation resistance.