Direct observations were made of the minority-carrier injection-enhanced annealing of radiation-induced defects in metalorganic chemical vapor deposited p-type material at room temperature, and of the recovery of radiation damage in solar cells. Deep-level transient spectroscopic analysis showed that the main defect, H2 (Ev + 0.55eV) in p-type material exhibited minority-carrier injection-enhanced annealing which was characterized by an activation energy (0.51eV). This was close to the activation energy for recovery (0.54eV) of the defect that was responsible for diffusion-length degradation in the solar cells. The marked recovery of radiation damage in solar cells, induced by minority-carrier injection, was related to annihilation of the H2 defect.

Room-Temperature Minority-Carrier Injection-Enhanced Recovery of Radiation-Induced Defects in p-InGaP and Solar Cells A.Khan, M.Yamaguchi, J.C.Bourgoin, N.De Angelis, T.Takamoto: Applied Physics Letters, 2000, 76[18], 2559-61