This letter summarizes research on the characterization of residual stresses and electron-hole lifetimes of polycrystalline silicon sheet for photovoltaic applications. Full-field polariscopy, scanning room temperature photoluminescence, and surface photovoltage are used to characterize the polycrystalline silicon sheet. An orientation dependent stress-optic coefficient has been developed and used to extract the in-plane residual stresses from analysis of transmitted near-infrared light. The characteristics of the spatial distribution and the quantitative correlation between the residual stresses and the electron-hole lifetime are presented.

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