| This thesis presents the results of annealing experiments on two InP solar cell structures following irradiation with high energy particles. The two cell structures are diffused junctions (DJ), grown by sulfur (S) diffusion, and shallow homojunctions (SHJ) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The radiation-induced defects are characterized by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The solar cell electrical properties are characterized through current vs. voltage (IV) measurements in the dark and under simulated 1 sun, air mass zero (AM0), solar illumination. The annealing experiments consisted of low temperature (T {dollar}<{dollar} 300K) illuminations, high temperature (T {dollar}>{dollar} 300K) illuminations, and thermal annealing in the dark. The results are analyzed to determine the effect of photo-injection on the radiation-induced defect spectrum in both cell types. A mechanism for the degradation and subsequent annealing of each cell type is developed based on the observed defect reactions. The degradation mechanism is found to be similar in the different cell structures. The solar cell annealing behavior was found to be different in the different structures which is explained in terms of enhanced defect annealing. |
