Silicon crystals are implanted with nitrogen in the dose range of 1010–1016ions/cm2. After thermal annealing at 700 °C photoluminescence at 1.1223 eV (Aline) is observed which was reported previously only from bulk doped crystals. The dependence on the implantation dose and the annealing behavior of the recombination center are investigated in detail. We find that electrically active nitrogen is not responsible for the formation of the defect whereas there exists a correlation with vacancy‐interstitial nitrogen complexes.