The Role of Inhomogeneities for Understanding Current–Voltage Characteristics of Solar Cells

All solar cells show more or less inhomogeneous electronic properties. This holds in particular for multicrystalline silicon cells, where local differences of the lifetime of more than an order of magnitude exist. This contribution explains how these inhomogeneities can be imaged and quantified, and the physical origins and the efficiency degradation potential of J01-, J02-, and ohmic inhomogeneit...