Hydrogen passivation is considered as an effective way to reduce the recombination ability of low cost silicon wafer. In this paper, an innovative method to use laser to achieve localised hydrogen passivation is proposed. Laser induced localised hydrogen passivation is shown to be able to passivate localised high recombination sites, and therefore enhance the photoluminescence response and effective lifetime of the silicon wafer. In the experiment, various processing parameters on the effect of localised hydrogen passivation are investigated. It is found that the performance of localised hydrogen passivation increases with the laser induced peak temperature and laser illumination intensity until the critical value. The performance of localised hydrogen passivation is also found to increase with the decreased laser scan speeds, as reduced laser scan speeds lead to enhanced hydrogen passivation time. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.