Nonequal current generation in the cells of a photovoltaic module, e.g., due to partial shading, leads to operation in reverse bias. This quickly causes a significant efficiency loss in perovskite solar cells. We report a more quantitative investigation of the reverse bias degradation. Various small reverse biases (negative voltages) were applied for different durations. After normalizing the applied voltages with the breakdown voltages, we found similar dependences of the reverse bias current and the degradation rate. We draw conclusions regarding possible degradation mechanisms and propose a way to increase the comparability of degradation rates for comparing different perovskite solar cells.

The perovskite solar cell is considered a promising candidate as the top cell for high-efficiency tandem devices with crystalline silicon (c-Si) bottom cells, contributing to the cost reduction of photovoltaic energy. In this contribution, a simulation method, involving optical and electrical modelling, is established to calculate the performance of 4-terminal (4T) perovskite/c-Si tandem devices on a mini-module level. Optical and electrical characterization of perovskite and c-Si solar cells are carried out to verify the simulation parameters. With our method, the influence of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer thickness of perovskite top cells on the performance of tandem mini-modules is investigated in case of both tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) and hydrogen-doped indium oxide (IO:H). The investigation shows that optimization of TCO layer thickness and replacement of conventional ITO with highly transparent IO:H can lead to an absolute efficiency increase of about 1%. Finally, a practical assessment of the efficiency potential for the 4T perovskite/c-Si tandem mini-module is carried out, indicating that with a relatively simple 4T tandem module structure the efficiency of a single-junction c-Si mini-module (19.3%) can be improved by absolute 4.5%.