High-irradiance degradation tests on concentrator GaAs solar cells

The present work summarises the results of an experiment of light-soaking high-concentrator MOVPE-grown GaAs solar cells under monochromatic light (808 nm). The irradiance level was set so that the short-circuit current obtained was 1100 times that produced with the AM1.5D spectrum at 1 kW/m(2). This test caused no morphological changes in the devices. The main phenomenon discovered has been a slight increase with time of the reverse current I-02. This increase is analogous to that observed in similar degradation experiments based on high forward currents. In general, the results of these tests show that the drop in performance is very limited, supporting the idea that concentrator GaAs solar cells are rugged devices, capable of achieving long lifetimes infield operation. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.