CIGS Solar Cells for Space Applications: Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Traps Created by High-Energy Electron and Proton Irradiation on the Performance of Solar Cells

Abstract

Numerical simulation is carried out using the Silvaco ATLAS software to predict the effect of 1-MeV electron and 4-MeV proton irradiation on the performance of a Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell that operates under the air mass zero spectrum (AM0). As a consequence of irradiation, two types of traps are induced including the donor- and acceptor-type traps. Only one of them (the donor-type trap) is found responsible for the degradation of the open-circuit voltage (VOC), fill factor (FF) and efficiency (η), while the short circuit current (JSC) remains essentially unaffected. The modelling simulation validity is verified by comparison with the experimental data. This article shows that CIGS solar cells are suited for space applications.