Predicting short circuit current of single junction and multi-junction solar cells at low temperature for planetary missions

Past NASA missions to Mars, Jupiter and the outer planets were powered by radioisotope thermal generators. Future missions however, will have to rely on solar power to meet mission needs. Many of these missions will require cells to operate well below room temperature. In this paper quantum efficiency measurements taken at low temperature are used to study the response of single junction and multi-junction cells at low temperature. The following tandem systems were analysed: GaInP/GaAs, GaAs/GaSb and InP/InGaAs.