Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Sherif Michael. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-66). Also available online.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The effects of radiation in GaAs solar cells has been extensively researched and the results of numerous investigation have yielded a considerable amount of information about the degradation in irradiated solar cells. This thesis establishes a novel method in which to use Silvaco's physically-based device simulator, ATLAS, to model the effects of radiation on solar cell output characteristics. A virtual model representing a single junction GaAs solar cell was created in ATLAS. The effects of radiation were modeled using carrier trapping statements representing the defects associated with various fluence levels of 1 MeV electron radiation which were characterized with Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy techniques. The resulting output characteristics of the virtual solar cell, illuminated with a simulated AM0 spectrum, were compared to published experimental measurements for GaAs solar cells of the same dimensions. The virtual solar cell demonstrated a good correlation between the measured and virtual solar cell output characteristics and accurate representation of the spectral response. Complete ATLAS and MATLAB codes are included in appendices. / Major, United States Marine Corps

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