Light-ion beam treatments and Rutherford back-scattering analysis, combined with first-principles density-functional calculations, were used to investigate the interaction of a specific group-III acceptor, Ga, with native defects - mostly self-interstitials - generated by irradiation at room temperature, or during thermal annealing. Monitoring the off-lattice displacement of Ga during He-beam irradiation at room temperature or after high-temperature annealing by channeling analysis, a partitioning into substitutional and tetrahedral interstitial Ga populations was found in the former case, and a partitioning into substitutional and random populations in the latter. Based on ab initio calculations and angular-scan Rutherford back-scattering spectroscopy, it was possible to interpret the results in terms of (a) self-interstitial-assisted enhanced diffusion of Ga, and (b) the subsequent formation of stable Ga-Ga and Ga-Ga-Si complexes. This suggested that deactivation was indeed mediated by native defects (mainly self-interstitials) causing the off-site displacement of the Ga impurity.Influence of Point Defects Injection on the Stability of a Supersaturated Ga-Si Solid Solution. L.Romano, A.M.Piro, M.G.Grimaldi, G.M.Lopez, V.Fiorentini: Physical Review B, 2005, 71[16], 165201 (6pp)