  The measurement of the minority carrier lifetime is a powerful tool in the
field of semiconductor material characterization as it is very sensitive to
electrically active defects. Furthermore, it is applicable to a wide range of
samples such as ingots or wafers. In this work, a systematic theoretical
analysis of the steady-state approach is presented. It is shown how the
measured lifetime relates to the intrinsic bulk lifetime for a given material
quality, sample thickness, and surface passivation. This makes the bulk
properties experimentally accessible by separating them from the surface
effects. In particular, closed analytical solutions of the most important
cases, such as passivated and unpassivated wafers and blocks are given. Based
on these results, a criterion for a critical sample thickness is given beyond
which a lifetime measurement allows deducing the bulk properties for a given
surface recombination. These results are of particular interest for
semiconductor material diagnostics especially for photovoltaic applications but
not limited to this field.
