An experimental procedure was demosntrated to detect transition metals at shunting locations in solar cells, involving lock-in thermography, SR-LBIC, XBIC, and μ-XRF. Thus, transition metals were found to be present in higher than average concentrations at both shunts analyzed in the study. Such results can be explained most effectively by the presence of field charges at the cores of the channels, which cause local band bending in the vicinity of the channel to occur, thus attracting minority charges to the channels.