In this paper, experimental results of a study on iron disilicide light-emitting diodes will be presented. A comparison will be made between the luminescence characteristics of standard iron disilicide diodes and diodes that have been augmented by the use of dislocation engineering, using dislocation loops, to provide spatial localisation of the injected carriers. The improvements observed will be discussed and the results kinetically modelled using a rate equation approach. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.