Minority-carrier injection annealing of electron irradiation-induced defects in InP solar cells

Abstract

The first observation of minority-carrier injection annealing of radiation-induced defects in InP is reported. Minority-carrier injection due to both forward bias application and light illumination at room temperature after electron irradiation is shown to enhance defect annealing in p-InP and to result in the recovery of InP solar cell properties. These results suggest that most InP-based devices under minority-carrier injection mode operation conditions are more radiation resistant than any other material-based devices.