Effect of isotropic proton irradiation on the performance of ITO/InP solar cells

Results of proton exposure experiments on ITO/InP solar cells, for a range of proton energies between 2 and 50 MeV and for a range of fluences up to 1E12 proton/cm/sup 2/, are presented. The cells are mounted on a rocker during irradiation, to simulate hemispherical isotropic radiation. Data from ITO/InP cells are compared to those for commercially available GaAs and Si cells irradiated under the same conditions. At all proton energies, the ITO/InP cells showed a significantly lower percentage of degradation than the other types of cell. It is concluded that the two types of cell operate in a similar manner. From the data, the ITO/InP structure appears to present the same advantages with respect to radiation resistance as does the homojunction structure.<>