A study was made on the characteristics of cathodoluminescence (CL) from Si crystals with various configurations of dislocations. D3 and D4 were observed along slip lines, while D1 and D2 were found to be strong in the region where plural slip lines intersect each other. It was shown that not only Lomer–Cottrell dislocations but also jogs act as recombination centers for D1 and D2 luminescence. The spatial distributions of D1 and D2 luminescence were observed to be similar to each other, this was also true of D3 and D4. The effect of hydrogenation on CL distribution was also investigated. Contrary to the reports of other groups, no evidence was obtained on the enhancement of D line luminescence due to metal contamination. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.