Minority carrier (hole) lifetime investigations are conducted on identical 6H-SiC p(+)-n structures by electrical (reverse recovery, open circuit voltage decay) and optical (time-resolved photoluminescence) techniques. The p(+)-n diodes are fabricated by Al implantation. Depending on the particular analysis technique, the lifetime is determined either electrically in different regions of the p(+)-n diode or optically in the n-type 6H-SiC epilayer and results, therefore, in different values ranging from ≈ 10 ns to 2.5 μ s.