Exploration of the Electrical Behavior of GaAs/Ge Single Junction Solar Cell

In this paper, a mathematical model based on the equivalent circuit (single-diode model) was used to study the electrical behavior of a GaAs/Ge single junction solar cell. In order to validate the suitability of this proposed model, nominal values provided by the manufacturer such as photocurrent (I_SC), open circuit voltage (V_OC), maximum power (P_max), form factor (FF) and efficiency (η) were exploited. A comparison between the nominal static characteristics, current-voltage (I-V) and power-voltage (P-V), and those obtained through the proposed model of this solar cell showed that they were very identical. Based on this proposed model, the impact of irradiance and temperature on these static properties and on the various electrical parameters of this solar cell was investigated. This study demonstrated the suitability of this proposed model in exploring how the electrical behavior of this solar cell is affected by changes in illumination and temperature, respectively. Despite the simplicity of this proposed model, it presents good behavior and high performance, making it the most suitable mathematical model for studying single-junction solar cells based on GaAs/Ge semiconductor technology. MATLAB software was used to simulate the proposed model and to analyze the performance of this solar cell.