An experimental test of minority carrier annealing on gallium arsenide solar cells using forward-baised current

Abstract

There has been recent interest in providing an on-orbit solar cell annealing capability. Minority carrier injection annealing was examined using a 0.5a/cm^2 forward-biased current density on gallium arsenide solar cells in a 90 degree centigrade ambient environment. the cells had been irradiated with 1-Mev electrons for a total fluence of 3El5el/cm^2. When annealing stopped, after 48 hours, the procedure had recovered 30% of the maximum power that was lost due to radiation damage. This procedure may have on-orbit potential.