Erbium-doped silicon has been fabricated by ion implantation performed on a metal vapour vacuum arc ion source.After rapid thermal annealing(RTA), 1.54μm photoluminescence was observed at 77K. Rutherford backscattering spectrum indicated that Er ions are mainly distributed near the surface of the samples, and Er concentration exceeded 1021cm-3. Needle nanometre crystalline silicon(nc-Si) was formed on the substrate surface. Band edge emission spectrum at 10K verified that the minority carrier lifetime increased upon RTA. The photocarrier mediated processes enabled energy transferring from nc-Si(or c-Si) to the Er3+ ions and resulted in light emission of 1.54μm.