A study on the effects of the proton flux on the irradiated degradation of GaAs/Ge solar cells

Low-energy proton irradiation is one of the important factors which affect applications of GaAs solar cells in space. The proton flux encountered in orbit is much lower than that used during ground-base radiation experiments, thus ground-based experiments are a so-called accelerated simulating process. In this paper, effects of the proton flux on the degradation of GaAs/Ge solar cells using I–V measurements are investigated. The results indicate that low-energy irradiation seriously damages the solar cells. Regardless of the proton energy, the radiation flux shows no influence on the degradation process of the solar cell. The mechanisms for these effects are discussed in detail here.