Dislocation-related electroluminescence of silicon after electron irradiation

This letter describes a novel method of introducing controllable dislocations in silicon by electron irradiation. A corresponding dislocation-related light emitting diode with ∼1.6 μm emission at room temperature has been fabricated. A new affiliated peak of dislocation-related electroluminescence at ∼0.86 eV is observed. The current-dependent electroluminescence proves that the dislocation-related luminescence is derived from several dislocation-induced energy levels which have higher priority in recombination of the injected electrons and holes over the band-to-band recombination. Our work may provide an alternative approach for silicon-based light sources.