The generation lifetime, capture cross section, and thermal emission rates for the gold acceptor level in bulk silicon have been studied using MOS techniques. The experimental methods used were the pulsed high‐frequency capacitance‐time and nonequilibrium linear‐voltage‐ramp techiniques at various temperatures. By correlating the results of the above measurements, the capture cross section &sgr; and trap energyEtof the gold acceptor state were determined as a function of temperature in the range 235–265 °K. It was observed that &sgr; increases with increasing temperature and has a value of the order of 1.0×10−15cm2. On the other hand, the trap energyEtwas found to decrease with increasing temperature, suggesting that it varies in unison with the silicon energy gap. Finally, from the above results the thermal emission ratesenandepwere determined, with the assumption that the degeneracy factor andgA=1. For the temperature range investigated, the ratioen/epvaried from 30 at 235 °K to 20 at 265 °K.