Deep‐level transient spectroscopy has been used to study the deep levels introduced by silver impurity in silicon. New levels in addition to the well‐known silver‐related deep donor and acceptor levels have been found. Interaction of silver‐related defects with radiation‐induced defects has been studied using &agr; irradiation. Data on the annealing characteristics of silver‐related levels are reported. Isochronal thermal annealing before and after irradiation provides interesting insights on such interactions and on the nature of the silver‐related levels. In particular, the two newly observed prominent silver‐related levels exhibit a complementary annealing behavior, suggesting a mutual thermal transformation. The presence of silver is seen to produce a significant change in the annealing characteristics of the prominent radiation‐inducedA‐center defect. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.