The electronic and structural characteristics of xenon implanted in amorphous silicon are investigated. A different implantation approach, in which xenon atoms are implanted during the film deposition, was developed. Up to about 5 at. % of xenon were implanted at energy as low as 100 eV. X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that xenon atoms are dispersed in the amorphous Si network. The xenon 3d(5/2) binding energy, from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, as well as the initial state contribution and relaxation energy, from x-ray excited Auger electron spectroscopy, depend on the implantation energy and indicate that the xenon atoms are trapped in voids of different sizes. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.9016