Progress and future prospects of researches for III-V compound solar cells in Japan

Abstract

The III-V compound solar cells have great potential of high-efficiency and radiation-resistant space solar cells. The Japanese group has contributed to discovery for superior radiation-resistance InP solar cells and development of high-efficiency and radiation-resistant InGaP-based tandem solar cells. In this paper, key technologies for realizing high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells and overview of the Japanese research activities for high-efficiency and radiation-resistant GaAs, InP and multi-junction solar cells are presented.

The authors wish sincere thanks to members of NTT, Toyota Tech. Inst., Sharp, Daido Steel, AIST, Toyota Motor, Univ. Miyazaki, Univ. Tokyo, JAXA, NASA, NREL, UPM, FhG-ISE and Imperial College for their fruitful collaboration and NEDO, MEXT, JSPS, JST and EC for their support.