The photoinduced open-circuit voltage decay technique wasrnused to investigate the minority canier lifetime in crystalline andrnpolycrystalline silicon solar cells. Tlus convenient investigationrntecluuque allows a fast detennination of the minOlity canier lifetimernin senUconductor matelials and is an impOltant technique to predictrnthe solar cell perfOlmance. The decay curves were obtained with a xenonrnstroboscope lanlp and Nd:YAG laser and Nitrogen laser pulses as anrnexcitation source