Author Description

This thesis reports the results of a laser annealing technique used to remove defect sites from radiation damaged indium phosphide on silicon MOCVD grown solar cells. This involves the illumination of damaged solar cells with a continuous wave laser to produce a large forward-biased current. The InP/Si cells were irradiated with 1 MeV electrons to a given fluence, and tested for degradation. Light from an argon laser was used to illuminate four cells with an irradiance of 2.5 W/sq cm, producing a current density 3 to 5 times larger than AMO conditions. Cells were annealed at 19 deg C with the laser and at 25 deg C under AMO conditions. Annealing under laser illumination of n/p-type cells resulted in recovery of 48%. P/n type cells lost 4 to 12% of the assumed degradaton. Annealing under AMO conditions resulted in power recovery of 70% in n/p type cells. P/n-type cells recovered approximately 16% of lost power. Results indicate that significant power recovery results from the annealing of defects within n/p type InP/Si solar cells.