Defect generation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 heterojunction solar cells by high-energy electron and proton irradiation

Abstract

We investigate irradiation-induced defects in high-efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se2/CdS/ZnO heterojunction solar cells after electron irradiation with energies of 0.5, 1, and 3 MeV and after 4 MeV proton irradiation. We use electron and proton fluences of more than 1018 cm−2 and up to 1014 cm−2, respectively. The reduction of the solar cell efficiency in all experiments is predominantly caused by a loss ΔVOC of the open circuit voltage VOC. An analytical model describes ΔVOC in terms of radiation-induced defects enhancing recombination in the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber material. From our model, we extract defect introduction rates for recombination centers in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 for the respective particles and energies. We directly monitor the defect generation of these radiation-induced defects by admittance spectroscopy. The decrease of effective doping density in the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber layer under particle irradiation is analyzed with capacitance voltage measurements at low temperatures. Furthermore, data on the relative damage coefficients for high-energy electron irradiation in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells are presented. All data, from electron as well as proton irradiations, merge to a single characteristic degradation curve.