Radioactive isotopes are produced by nuclear reactions in a thin target foil. The recoiling products are directly implanted into samples mounted off‐axis to the primary beam. Using proton or &agr; beams and appropriate target foils, radioactive isotopes of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, and Co were implanted. The implantation parameters are presented and compared with other implantation techniques for radioactive isotopes. To demonstrate an application, a deep‐level transient spectroscopy measurement on48V in silicon is presented. Ti and V correlated band‐gap levels were observed during the48V decay. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.