Room-temperature electroluminescence from dislocations in silicon

We report on electroluminescence at room temperature from n(+)-p silicon diodes containing high densities (10(8)-10(9) cm(-2)) of dislocations at the junction interface. In addition to the electroluminescence (EL) from band-to-band transitions we observe a signal with a comparable intensity peaked at similar to 1.6 mu m (0.78 eV). From studies of the luminescence below room temperature, we deduce that the 1.6 mu m emission originates from the well known dislocation-related center D1. The D1 electroluminescence intensity at 300 K increases linearly with current density with no observable saturation. The external quantum efficiency of the D1 electroluminescence at room temperature was estimated to be of the order of 10(-7).