Dislocation-related electroluminescence at room temperature in plastically deformed silicon

Dislocation-related photoluminescence and electroluminescence properties have been studied in heavily dislocated silicon crystals between about 2 K and room temperature. A model explaining the high-temperature stability of the D1 luminescence is suggested and considerations concerning the nature of the D1 centers are presented. The experimental results are in good agreement with these models. In particular, forward-biased diodes exhibited an intense structureless luminescence band at 1.55 {μ}m which clearly originated from the D1 centers.