The gettering of iron in silicon has been reported to occur at dislocations and stacking faults in the vicinity of oxygen precipitates. The iron-containing phase has also been identified. For heat treatments between 800 °C and 1025 °C for 24 hrs, only one phase was identified in argon-implanted as well as oxygen-implanted samples. The gettered particles 30 nm to 100 nm in size were analyzed using EDS, EELS and micodiffraction, and the only phase was identified as FeSi. It is proposed that the role of oxygen precipitates in the gettering process is only to generate defects in the matrix, which ultimately getter the transition metal.