Influence of Temperature on Electrical Parameters of GaAs in the Aspect of Applications in Photovoltaics

The article describes the results of the research on thermal stability of electrical parameters of n-type gallium arsenide doped with tellurium, defected by ion implantation, measured at the operating temperature ranging from 77 K to 373 K. The aim of the work is to investigate the character of changes in the values of such electrical parameters as resistivity, capacity and loss tangent of the tested GaAs samples, exposed to different thermal conditions. Temperature dependences analyzed in the paper could be taken as a basis to formulate general speculations concerning potential applications of the tested material as a substrate in the process of photovoltaic cells production. The phenomenon of conversion of solar energy into electricity is strongly connected with electrical properties of photovoltaic cell substrate material and its internal structure. Moreover, the efficiency of photoconversion is affected by such factors as charge carrier lifetime distribution and diffusion length in the base material. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm what is the character of the influence of operating temperature on the electrical parameters of GaAs and what modification could be introduced in the material in order to increase the efficiency of photoconversion.