Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with a novel hybrid electrode structure, in which a single device can operate with either a vertical (sandwich) or lateral (back-contact) configuration of contacts, are demonstrated in this work. The hybrid structure was achieved by depositing an additional anode on top of a prefabricated back-contact PSC device, giving a final device with three electrodes—one shared cathode and two anodes. Device performances are tested and evaluated for both operation modes, and a semianalytical model along with coupled optoelectronic simulations is used to rationalize the experimental results. It is determined that due to the intrinsically narrow depletion region near the contact interfaces, the charge collection efficiency in the back-contact device structure appears to be significantly lower compared to the sandwich device structure. This finding provides an insight into the cause of the performance disparity between these two architectures.
