Room temperature electroluminescence from dislocation-rich silicon

We report on electroluminescence at room temperature from forward biased n⁺ - p silicon diodes containing high densities (10⁸-10⁹ cm^-2) of dislocations at the junction interface. In addition to electroluminescence from band-to-band transitions, we observe a signal with a comparable intensity peaked at ∼1.6 μm (0.78 eV). From luminescence studies below room temperature we deduce that the 1.6 μm emission originates from the well known dislocation-related center D1. The D1 electroluminescence intensity at room temperature increases linearly with current density with no observable saturation. The external efficiency of the D1 electroluminescence at room temperature was estimated to be of the order 10^-6.