Negative thermal quenching of the defects in GaInP top cell with temperature-dependent photoluminescence analysis

Temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out to investigate the irradiation effects of 1.0MeV electrons on the n+- p GaInP top cell of GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells in the 10–300K temperature range. The PL intensities plotted against inverse temperature in an Arrhenius plot shows a thermal quenching behavior from 10K to 140K and an unusual negative thermal quenching (NTQ) behavior from 150K to 300 K. The appearance of the PL thermal quenching with increasing temperature confirms that there is a nonradiative recombination center, i.e., the H2 hole trap located at Ev+0.55eV, in the cell after electron irradiation. The PL negative thermal quenching behavior may tentatively be attributed to the intermediate states at an energy level of 0.05eV within the band gap in GaInP top cell.