Reliability Analysis of III-V Solar Cells Grown on Recycled GaAs Substrates and an Electroplated Nickel Substrate

Table 1

Performance of III-V solar cell grown on new/recycled GaAs substrate and GaAs thin film solar cell transferred onto Ni substrate before and after thermal shock test.

	𝑉oc (V)	𝐽sc (mA/cm^2)	FF (%)	𝜂 (%)	𝐼01 (A)	𝐼02 (A)	𝑅𝑠 (Ω)	𝑅sh (Ω)
III-V solar cells grown on new and recycled GaAs substrate
Recycled times
Initial device	0.99	22.59	81.54	18.23	1.34×10^−20	1.69×10^−13	15.6	3.23×10^6
1st device	0.99	22.42	80.86	17.94	8.22×10^−20	2.52×10^−12	17.4	2.80×10^6
2nd device	0.97	22.47	80.47	17.53	1.06×10^−19	5.22×10^−12	19.4	2.30×10^6
3rd device	0.83	20.64	76.52	13.10	2.01×10^−17	6.33×10^−11	43.5	1.07×10^6
4th device	0.82	19.40	74.01	11.77	3.72×10^−17	4.05×10^−11	56.5	1.47×10^5
Performance of GaAs thin films solar cell with Ni substrate before and after thermal shock test
Thermal shock test times
0 time	0.99	22.37	80.01	17.71	3.32×10^−20	2.47×10^−12	15.8	3.10×10^6
800 times	0.98	21.74	78.48	16.72	5.54×10^−20	3.32×10^−12	21.8	2.10×10^6
1200 times	0.97	21.10	77.89	15.94	6.02×10^−20	4.24×10^−12	27.5	1.25×10^6
1500 times	0.95	20.19	76.41	14.65	1.70×10^−19	5.50×10^−12	43.3	2.50×10^5

 𝐼₀₁ and 𝐼₀₂: diode saturation current, 𝑅_𝑠: series resistances, and 𝑅_sh: shunt resistances.
Initial device: the GaAs solar cell grown on new GaAs substrate; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th devices: the GaAs solar cell grown on recycled GaAs substate.