An electronic or optoelectronic device fabricated from a crystalline
material in which a parameter of a bandgap characteristic of said
crystalline material has been modified locally by introducing distortions
on an atomic scale in the lattice structure of said crystalline material
and the electronic and/or optoelectronic parameters of said device are
dependent on the modification of said bandgap is exemplified by a
radiation emissive optoelectronic semiconductor device which comprises a
junction (10) formed from a p-type layer (11) and an n-type layer (12),
both formed from indirect bandgap semiconductor material. The p-type
layer (11) contains an array of dislocation loops which create a strain
field to confine spatially and promote radiative recombination of the
charge carriers.