emission of light by certain materials when they are relatively cool. It is in contrast to light emitted from incandescent bodies, such as burning wood or coal, molten iron, and wire heated by an electric current. Luminescence may be seen in neon and fluorescent lamps; television, radar, and X-ray fluoroscope screens; organic substances such as luminol or the luciferins in fireflies and glowworms; certain pigments used in outdoor advertising; and also natural electrical phenomena such as lightning and the aurora borealis. In all these phenomena, light emission does not result from the material being above room temperature, and so luminescence is often called cold light. The practical value of luminescent materials lies in their capacity to transform invisible forms of energy into visible light.

Luminescence emission occurs after an appropriate material has absorbed energy from a source such as ultraviolet or X-ray radiation, electron beams, chemical reactions, and so on. The energy lifts the atoms of the material into an excited state, and then, because excited states are unstable, the material undergoes another transition, back to its unexcited ground state, and the absorbed energy is liberated in the form of either light or heat or both (all discrete energy states, including the ground state, of an atom are defined as quantum states). The excitation involves only the outermost electrons orbiting around the nuclei of the atoms. Luminescence efficiency depends on the degree of transformation of excitation energy into light, and there are relatively few materials that have sufficient luminescence efficiency to be of practical value.

As mentioned above, luminescence is characterized by electrons undergoing transitions from excited quantum states. The excitation of the luminescent electrons is not connected with appreciable agitations of the atoms that the electrons belong to. When hot materials become luminous and radiate light, a process called incandescence, the atoms of the material are in a high state of agitation. Of course, the atoms of every material are vibrating at room temperature already, but this vibration is just sufficient to produce temperature radiation in the far infrared region of the spectrum. With increasing temperature this radiation shifts into the visible region. On the other hand, at very high temperatures, such as are generated in shock tubes, the collisions of atoms can be so violent that electrons dissociate from the atoms and recombine with them, emitting light: in this case luminescence and incandescence become indistinguishable.

Nonluminescent pigments and dyes exhibit colours (colour) because they absorb white light and reflect that part of the spectrum that is complementary to the absorbed light. A small fraction of the absorbed light is transformed into heat, but no appreciable radiation is produced. If, however, an appropriate luminescent pigment absorbs daylight in a special region of its spectrum, it can emit light of a colour different from that of the reflected light. This is the result of electronic processes within the molecule of the dye or pigment by which even ultraviolet light can be transformed to visible—e.g., blue—light. These pigments are used in such diverse ways as in outdoor advertising, blacklight displays, and laundering: in the latter case, a residue of the “brightener (detergent)” is left in the cloth, not only to reflect white light but also to convert ultraviolet light into blue light, thus offsetting any yellowness and reinforcing the white appearance.

Although lightning, the aurora borealis, and the dim light of glowworms and of fungi have always been known to mankind, the first investigations (1603) of luminescence began with a synthetic material, when Vincenzo Cascariolo, an alchemist and cobbler in Bologna, Italy, heated a mixture of barium sulfate (in the form of barite, heavy spar) and coal; the powder obtained after cooling exhibited a bluish glow at night, and Cascariolo observed that this glow could be restored by exposure of the powder to sunlight. The name lapis solaris, or “sunstone,” was given to the material because alchemists at first hoped it would transform baser metals into gold, the symbol for gold being the Sun. The pronounced afterglow aroused the interest of many learned men of that period, who gave the material other names, including phosphorus, meaning “light bearer,” which thereafter was applied to any material that glowed in the dark.

Today, the name phosphorus (phosphor) is used for the chemical element only, whereas certain microcrystalline luminescent materials are called phosphors. Cascariolo's phosphor evidently was a barium sulfide; the first commercially available phosphor (1870) was “Balmain's paint,” a calcium sulfide preparation. In 1866 the first stable zinc sulfide phosphor was described. It is one of the most important phosphors in modern technology.

One of the first scientific investigations of the luminescence exhibited by rotting wood or flesh and by glowworms, known from antiquity, was performed in 1672 by Robert Boyle (Boyle, Robert), an English scientist, who, although not aware of the biochemical origin of that light, nevertheless established some of the basic properties of bioluminescent (bioluminescence) systems: that the light is cold; that it can be inhibited by chemical agents such as alcohol, hydrochloric acid, and ammonia; and that the light emission is dependent on air (as later established, on oxygen).

In 1885–87 it was observed that crude extracts prepared from West Indian fireflies (firefly) (Pyrophorus) and from the boring clam, Pholas (piddock), gave a light-emitting reaction when mixed together. One of the preparations was a cold-water extract containing a compound relatively unstable to heat, luciferase; the other was a hot-water extract containing a relatively heat-stable compound, luciferin. The luminescent reaction that occurred when solutions of luciferase and luciferin were mixed at room temperature suggested that all bioluminescent reactions are “luciferin–luciferase reactions.” In view of the complex nature of bioluminescent reactions, it is not astonishing that this simple concept of bioluminescence has had to be modified. Only a small number of bioluminescent systems have been investigated for their respective luciferin and the corresponding luciferase, the best known being the bioluminescence of fireflies from the United States, a little crustacean living in the Japanese sea (Cypridina hilgendorfii), and decaying fish and flesh (bacterial bioluminescence). Although bioluminescent systems have not yet found practical applications, they are interesting because of their high luminescence efficiency.

The first efficient chemiluminescent (chemiluminescence) materials were nonbiological synthetic compounds such as luminol (with the formula 5-amino-2,3-dihydro-1.4-phthalazinedione). The strong blue chemiluminescence resulting from oxidation of this compound was first reported in 1928.

The name luminescence has been accepted for all light phenomena not caused solely by a rise of temperature, but the distinction between the terms phosphorescence and fluorescence is still open to discussion. With respect to organic molecules, the term phosphorescence means light emission caused by electronic transitions between levels of different multiplicity (explained more fully below), whereas the term fluorescence is used for light emission connected with electronic transitions between levels of like multiplicity. The situation is far more complicated in the case of inorganic phosphors.

The term phosphorescence was first used to describe the persistent luminescence (afterglow) of phosphors. The mechanism described above for the phosphorescence of excited organic molecules fits this picture in that it is also responsible for light persistence up to several seconds. Fluorescence, on the other hand, is an almost instantaneous effect, ending within about 10⁻⁸ second after excitation. The term fluorescence was coined in 1852, when it was experimentally demonstrated that certain substances absorb light of a narrow spectral region (e.g., blue light) and instantaneously emit light in another spectral region not present in the incident light (e.g., yellow light) and that this emission ceases at once when the irradiation of the material comes to an end. The name fluorescence was derived from the mineral fluorspar (fluorite), which exhibits a violet, short-duration luminescence on irradiation by ultraviolet light.

Most of the energy liberated in chemical reactions (chemical reaction), especially oxidation reactions (oxidation–reduction reaction), is in the form of heat. In some reactions, however, part of the energy is used to excite electrons to higher energy states, and, for fluorescent molecules, chemiluminescence results. Studies indicate that chemiluminescence is a universal phenomenon, although the light intensities observed are usually so small that sensitive detectors are necessary. There are, however, some compounds that exhibit brilliant chemiluminescence, the best known being luminol, which, when oxidized by hydrogen peroxide, can yield a strong blue or blue-greenish chemiluminescence. Other instances of strong chemiluminescences are lucigenin (an acridinium compound) and lophine (an imidazole derivative). In spite of the brilliance of their chemiluminescence, not all of these compounds are efficient in transforming chemical energy into light energy, because only about 1 percent or less of the reacting molecules emit light. During the 1960s, esters (organic compounds that are products of reactions between organic acids and alcohols) of oxalic acid were found that, when oxidized in nonaqueous solvents in the presence of highly fluorescent aromatic compounds, emit brilliant light with an efficiency up to 23 percent.

Bioluminescence is a special type of chemiluminescence catalyzed by enzymes (enzyme). The light yield of such reactions can reach 100 percent, which means that almost without exception every molecule of the reacting luciferin is transformed into a radiating state. All of the bioluminescent reactions best known today are catalyzed oxidation reactions occurring in the presence of air.

When crystals of certain substances—e.g., sugar—are crushed, luminescent sparkles are visible. Similar observations have been made with numerous organic and inorganic substances. Closely related are the faint blue luminescence observable when adhesive tapes are stripped from a roll, and the luminescence exhibited when strontium bromate and some other salts are crystallized from hot solutions. In all of these cases, positive and negative electric charges are produced by the mechanical separation (tribology) of surfaces and during the crystallization process. Light emission then occurs by discharge, either directly, by molecule fragments, or via excitation of the atmosphere in the neighbourhood of the separated surface: the blue glow coming from adhesive tapes being unrolled is emitted from nitrogen molecules of the air that have been excited by the electric discharge.

Thermoluminescence means not temperature radiation but enhancement of the light emission of materials already excited electronically by the application of heat. The phenomenon is observed with some minerals and, above all, with crystal phosphors after they have been excited by light.

Photoluminescence, which occurs by virtue of electromagnetic radiation falling on matter, may range from visible light through ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma radiation. It has been shown that, in luminescence caused by light, the wavelength of emitted light generally is equal to or longer than that of the exciting light (i.e., of equal or less energy). As explained below, this difference in wavelength is caused by a transformation of the exciting light, to a greater or lesser extent, to nonradiating vibration energy of atoms or ions. In rare instances—e.g., when intense irradiation by laser beams is used or when sufficient thermal energy contributes to the electron excitation process—the emitted light can be of shorter wavelength than the exciting light (anti-Stokes radiation).

The fact that photoluminescence can also be excited by ultraviolet radiation was first observed by a German physicist, Johann Wilhelm Ritter (Ritter, Johann Wilhelm) (1801), who investigated the behaviour of phosphors in light of various colours. He found that phosphors luminesce brightly in the invisible region beyond violet and thus discovered ultraviolet radiation. The transformation of ultraviolet light to visible light has much practical importance.

Gamma rays (gamma ray) and X rays (X-ray) excite crystal phosphors and other materials to luminescence by the ionization process (i.e., the detachment of electrons from atoms), followed by a recombination of electrons and ions to produce visible light. Advantage of this is taken in the fluoroscope used in X-ray diagnostics and in the scintillation counter that detects and measures gamma rays directed onto a phosphor disk that is in optical contact with the face of a photomultiplier tube (a device that amplifies light signals).

Like thermoluminescence, the term electroluminescence includes several distinct phenomena, a common feature of which is that light is emitted by an electrical discharge in gases, liquids, and solid materials. Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin), in the United States, for example, in 1752 identified the luminescence of lightning as caused by electric discharge through the atmosphere. An electric-discharge lamp was first demonstrated in 1860 to the Royal Society of London. It produced a brilliant white light by the discharge of high voltage through carbon dioxide at low pressure. Modern fluorescent lamps are based on a combination of electroluminescence and photoluminescence: mercury atoms in the lamp are excited by electric discharge, and the ultraviolet light emitted by the mercury atoms is transformed into visible light by a phosphor.

The electroluminescence sometimes observed at the electrodes during electrolysis (electrochemical reaction) is caused by the recombination of ions (therefore, this is a sort of chemiluminescence). The application of an electric field to thin layers of luminescing zinc sulfide can produce light emission, which is also called electroluminescence.

A great number of materials luminesce under the impact of accelerated electrons (once called cathode rays)—e.g., diamond, ruby, crystal phosphors, and certain complex salts of platinum. The first practical application of cathodoluminescence was in the viewing screen of an oscilloscope (cathode-ray oscilloscope) tube constructed in 1897; similar screens, employing improved crystal phosphors, are used in television, radar, oscilloscopes, and electron microscopes.

The impact of accelerated electrons on molecules can produce molecular ions, ions of molecule fragments, and atomic ions. In gas-discharge tubes these particles were first detected as “canal rays” or anode rays. They are able to excite phosphors but not as efficiently as electrons can.

Radioactive (radioactive isotope) elements can emit alpha particles (alpha particle) (helium nuclei), electrons, and gamma rays (high-energy electromagnetic radiation). The term radioluminescence, therefore, means that an appropriate material is excited to luminescence by a radioactive substance. When alpha particles bombard a crystal phosphor, tiny scintillations are visible to microscopic observation. This is the principle of the device used by an English physicist, Ernest Rutherford, to prove that an atom has a central nucleus. Self-luminous (luminous paint) paints (paint), such as are used for dial markings for watches and other instruments, owe their behaviour to radioluminescence. These paints consist of a phosphor and a radioactive substance, e.g., tritium or radium. An impressive natural radioluminescence is the aurora borealis: by the radioactive processes of the Sun, enormous masses of electrons and ions are emitted into space in the solar wind. When they approach the Earth, they are concentrated by its geomagnetic field near the poles. Discharge processes of the particles in the upper atmosphere yield the famous luminance of the auroras.

The first phosphor synthesized (inorganic compound) was probably an impure barium sulfide preparation with very low luminance efficiency and with the serious shortcoming that it was rather quickly decomposed in moist air, yielding hydrogen sulfide. A more stable sulfide-type phosphor was produced in 1866 by heating zinc oxide in a stream of hydrogen sulfide. In 1887 it became known that these sulfides do not luminesce in a chemically pure state but only when they contain small quantities of a so-called activator metal. Later, other materials, such as certain metal oxides, silicates, and phosphates, were found to luminesce if they were prepared by special procedures.

The sulfides of zinc (zinc group element) and of cadmium are the most important basic materials of sulfide-type phosphors. An important condition of getting highly efficient phosphors is that these sulfides must first be prepared to the highest possible chemical purity before the necessary amount of activator can be added precisely. The emission of zinc sulfide can be shifted to longer wavelengths by increasing substitution of the zinc ions by cadmium ions. Zinc sulfide and cadmium sulfide phosphors are especially efficient in electroluminescence.

Sulfide-type phosphors are produced from pure zinc or cadmium sulfide or their mixtures by heating them together with small quantities (0.1–0.001 percent) of copper, silver, gallium, or other salts (activators) and with about 2 percent of sodium or another alkali chloride at about 1,000° C (1,832° F). The role of the alkali halides (halide mineral) is to facilitate the melting process and, above all, to serve as coactivators (fluxes). Only small quantities of the alkali halide are integrated into the phosphor, but this small quantity is highly important for its luminescence efficiency. Copper-activated zinc and cadmium sulfides exhibit a rather long afterglow when their irradiation has ceased, and this is favourable for application in radar screens and self-luminous phosphors.

Certain oxide-type minerals (mineral) have been found to luminesce when irradiated. In some of them, activators must first be introduced into the crystal. Examples are ruby (aluminum oxide with chromium activator—bright-red emission) and willemite (zinc orthosilicate with manganese activator—green emission). On the other hand, scheelite (calcium tungstate) emits a blue luminescence without activator. All of these minerals have been made synthetically, with remarkably higher efficiencies than those that occur naturally. Silicates, borates, and phosphates of the second group of the periodic table of elements, such as zinc silicate, zinc beryllium silicate, zinc and cadmium borates, and cadmium phosphates, become efficient phosphors when activated with manganese ions, emitting in the red to green region of the spectrum. They have been incorporated into colour television screens to emit the colours blue (silver-activated zinc sulfide), green (manganese-activated zinc orthosilicate), and red (europium-activated yttrium vanadate).

The study of phosphor chemistry has yielded a detailed picture of the role of the above-mentioned activators and fluxes. Philipp Anton Lenard (Lenard, Philipp), a physicist in Germany, was the first (1890) to describe activator ions as being distributed in zinc sulfide and other crystalline materials that serve as the host crystal. The activator ions are surrounded by host-crystal ions and form luminescing centres where the excitation–emission process of the phosphor takes place. These centres must not be too close together within the host crystal lest they inactivate each other. For high efficiency, only a trace of the activator may be inserted into the host crystal, and its distribution must be as regular as possible. In high concentration, activators act as “poisons” or “killers” and thus inhibit luminescence. The term killer is used especially for iron, cobalt, and nickel ions, whose presence, even in small quantities, can inhibit the emission of light from phosphors.

Phosphors, such as calcium tungstate or zinc sulfide, that need no activator appear to have their luminescing centres in special groups of atoms different from the symmetry of their own crystal lattice, such as the group WO₄ in the compound calcium tungstate (CaWO₄), or, similarly, the SiO₄ group in zinc orthosilicate, (Zn₂SiO₄). That luminescing properties of a centre are strongly dependent on the symmetry of neighbouring ion groups with respect to the whole phosphor molecule is clearly proved by the spectral shifts of certain phosphors activated with lanthanide ions, which emit in narrow spectral regions. Because of this altering effect on the symmetry of luminescing centres, small quantities (about 0.2 percent) of titania incorporated in zinc orthosilicate give a remarkable increase in luminescence. Titania is called an intensifier activator because it increases the host-crystal luminescence, whereas a substance that produces luminescence not exhibited by the chemically pure host crystal is called an originative activator.

The fluxes (e.g., sodium chloride) act as coactivators by facilitating the incorporation of activator ions. copper ions, for instance, are used as activators of zinc chloride phosphors and are usually introduced in the copper(II), or cupric, form (the Roman numeral indicates the oxidation state; that is, I means that the element has one electron involved in a chemical bond and II that it has two electrons involved; the larger oxidation state is indicated by the -ic ending and the smaller by the -ous ending). If a copper(II) compound is incorporated into the zinc sulfide by heating, copper(I) sulfide (or cuprous sulfide, formula Cu₂S) will be produced with crystals that will not fit into the host-crystal zinc chloride because their form is so different, and only a relatively few luminescent centres will be possible. On the other hand, if a coactivator such as sodium chloride is introduced along with the copper(II) salt, the copper(II) ions are reduced to form copper(I) chloride (or cuprous chloride, formula CuCl) crystals with the same structure as the host crystal. Thus, many luminescent centres will be produced, and strong activation will result.

Although the inorganic phosphors are industrially produced in far higher quantities (several hundred tons per year) than the organic luminescent materials, some types of the latter are becoming more and more important in special fields of practical application. Paints and dyes for outdoor advertising contain strongly fluorescing organic molecules such as fluorescein, eosin, rhodamine, and stilbene derivatives. Their main shortcoming is their relatively poor stability in light, because of which they are used mostly when durability is not required. Organic phosphors are used as optical brighteners for invisible markers of laundry, banknotes, identity cards, and stamps and for fluorescence microscopy of tissues in biology and medicine. Their “invisibility” is due to the fact that they absorb practically no visible light. The fluorescence is excited by invisible ultraviolet radiation (black light).

When describing chemical principles associated with luminescence, it is useful, at first, to neglect interactions between the luminescing atoms, molecules, or centres with their environment. In the gas phase these interactions are smaller than they are in the condensed phase of a liquid or a solid material. The efficiency of luminescence in the gas phase will be far greater than in the condensed phases because in the latter the energy of the electrons excited by photons or by chemical-reaction energy can be dissipated as thermal, nonradiative energy by collision of the atoms or by the rotational and vibrational energy of the molecules. This effect has to be taken into account even more when the radiation of single atoms is compared with that of multi-atomic molecules. For molecules, radiative (electronic-excitation) energy is internally converted to vibrational energy; that is, there are radiationless transitions of electrons in atoms. This is the explanation for the fact that only a relatively small number of compounds are able to exhibit efficient luminescence. In crystals, on the other hand, the binding forces between the ions or atoms of the lattice are strong compared with the forces acting between the particles of a liquid, and electron-excitation energy, therefore, is not as easily transformed into vibrational energy, thus leading to a good efficiency for radiative processes.

The emission of visible light (that is, light of wavelengths between about 690 nanometres and 400 nanometres, corresponding to the region between deep red and deep violet) requires excitation energies the minimum of which is given by Einstein's law stating that the energy (E) is equal to Planck's constant (h) times the frequency of light (ν), or Planck's constant times the velocity of light (c) in a vacuum divided by its wavelength (λ); that is,

The energy required for excitation therefore ranges between 40 kilocalories (for red light), about 60 kilocalories (for yellow light), and about 80 kilocalories (for violet light) per mole of substance. Instead of expressing these energies in kilocalories, electron volt units (one electron volt = 1.6 × 10⁻¹² erg; the erg is an extremely small unit of energy) may be used, and the photon energy thus required in the visible region ranges from 1.8 to 3.1 electron volts.

The excitation energy is transferred to the electrons responsible for luminescence, which jump from their ground-state energy level (energy state) to a level of higher energy. The energy levels that electrons can assume are specified by quantum mechanical laws. The different excitation mechanisms considered below depend on whether or not the excitation of electrons occurs in single atoms, in single molecules, in combinations of molecules, or in a crystal. They are initiated by the means of excitation described above: impact of accelerated particles such as electrons, positive ions, or photons. Often, the excitation energies are considerably higher than those necessary to lift electrons to a radiative level; for example, the luminescence produced by the phosphor crystals in television screens is excited by cathode-ray electrons with average energies of 25,000 electron volts. Nevertheless, the colour of the luminescent light is nearly independent of the energy of the exciting particles, depending chiefly on the excited-state energy level of the crystal centres.

Electrons taking part in the luminescence process are the outermost electrons of atoms or molecules. In fluorescent lamps (fluorescent lamp), for example, a mercury atom is excited by the impact of an electron having an energy of 6.7 electron volts or more, raising one of the two outermost electrons of the mercury atom in the ground state to a higher level. Upon the electron's return to the ground state, an energy difference is emitted as ultraviolet light of a wavelength of 185 nanometres. A radiative transition between another excited state and the ground-state level of the mercury atom produces the important ultraviolet emission of 254-nanometre wavelength, which, in turn, can excite other phosphors to emit visible light. (One such phosphor frequently used is a calcium halophosphate incorporating a heavy-metal activator.)

This 254-nanometre mercury radiation is particularly intensive at low mercury vapour pressures (around 10⁻⁵ atmosphere) used in low-pressure discharge lamps. About 60 percent of the input electron energy may thus be transformed into near-monochromatic ultraviolet light; i.e., ultraviolet light of practically one single wavelength.

Whereas at low pressure there are relatively few collisions of mercury atoms with each other, the collision frequency increases enormously if mercury gas is excited under high pressure (e.g., eight atmospheres or more). Such excitation leads not only to collisional de-excitation of excited atoms but also to additional excitation of excited atoms. As a consequence, the spectrum of the emitted radiation no longer consists of practically one single, sharp spectral line (line broadening) at 254 nanometres, but the radiation energy is distributed over various broadened spectral lines corresponding to different electronic energy levels of the mercury atom, the strongest emissions lying at 303, 313, 334, 366, 405, 436, 546, and 578 nanometres. High-pressure mercury lamps can be used for illumination purposes because the emissions from 405 to 546 nanometres are visible light of bluish-green colour; by transforming a part of the mercury line emission to red light by means of a phosphor, white light is obtained.

When gaseous molecules are excited, their luminescence spectra show broad bands; not only are electrons lifted to levels of higher energy but vibrational and rotational motions of the atoms as a whole are excited simultaneously. This is because vibrational and rotational energies of molecules are only about 10⁻² and 10⁻⁴, respectively, those of the electronic transition energies, and these many energies can be added to the energy of a single electronic transition, which is represented by a multitude of slightly different wavelengths making up one band. In larger molecules, several overlapping bands, one for each kind of electronic transition, can be emitted. Emission from molecules in solution is predominantly bandlike caused by interactions of a relatively great number of excited molecules with molecules of the solvent. In molecules, as in atoms, the excited electrons generally are outermost electrons of the molecular orbitals.

The terms fluorescence and phosphorescence can be used here, on the basis not only of the persistence of luminescence but also of the way in which the luminescence is produced. When an electron is excited to what is called, in spectroscopy, an excited singlet state, the state will have a lifetime of about 10⁻⁸ second, from which the excited electron can easily return to its ground state (which normally is a singlet state, too), emitting its excitation energy as fluorescence. During this electronic transition the spin of the electron is not altered; the singlet ground state and the excited singlet state have like multiplicity (number of subdivisions into which a level can be split). An electron, however, may also be lifted, under reversal of its spin, to a higher energy level, called an excited triplet state. Singlet ground states and excited triplet states are levels of different multiplicity. For quantum mechanical reasons, transitions from triplet states to singlet states are “forbidden,” and, therefore, the lifetime of triplet states is considerably longer than that of singlet states. This means that luminescence originating in triplet states has a far longer duration than that originating in singlet states: phosphorescence is observed.

The interactions of a large number of atoms, ions, or molecules are greater still in solution and in solids; to obtain a narrowing of the spectral band, subzero temperatures (down to that of liquid helium) are applied in order to reduce vibrational motions. The electronic energy levels of crystals such as zinc sulfide and other host crystals used in phosphors form bands: in the ground state practically all electrons are to be found on the valence band, whereas they reach the conduction band after sufficient excitation. The energy difference between the valence band and the conduction band corresponds to photons in the ultraviolet or still shorter wavelength region. Additional energy levels are introduced by activator ions or centres bridging the energy gap between valence band and conduction band, and, when an electron is transferred from the valence band to such an additional energy level by excitation energy, it can produce visible light on return to the ground state. A rather close analogy exists between the forbidden transitions of certain excited molecular electronic states (triplet–singlet, leading to phosphorescence) and the transition of an electron of an inorganic phosphor kept in a trap: traps (certain distortions in the crystal lattice) are places in the crystal lattice where the energy level is lower than that of the conduction band, and from which the direct return of an electron to the ground state is also forbidden.

When a solid is bombarded by photons or particles, the excitation of the centres can occur directly or by energy transfer. In the latter case, excited but nonluminescing states are produced at some distance from the centre, with the energy moving through the crystal in the form of excitons (exciton) (ion-electron pairs) until it approaches a centre where the excitation process can occur. This energy transfer can also be realized by radiation in inorganic phosphors containing two activators, as well as in solutions of organic molecules.

The radiative return of excited electrons to their ground state occurs spontaneously, and when there exists an assembly of excited electrons their individual spontaneous radiative transitions are independent of each other. Therefore, the luminescence light is incoherent (the emitted waves are not in phase with each other) in this case. Sometimes the emission of luminescence can be stimulated by irradiation with photons of the same frequency as that of the emitted light; such stimulated transitions are used in lasers, which produce very intensive beams of coherent monochromatic light.

The spontaneous luminescent emission follows an exponential law that expresses the rate of intensity (luminous intensity) decay and is similar to the equation for the decay of radioactivity and some chemical reactions. It states that the intensity of luminescent emission is equal to an exponential value of minus the time of decay divided by the decay time, or L = L₀ exp (−t/τ), in which L is the intensity of emission at a time t after an initial intensity L₀, and τ is the decay time of the luminescence; that is, the time in which the assembly of the excited atoms would decrease in luminescence intensity to a value of 0.368 L₀.

When excited atoms of the centres are in contact with other atoms, as is the case in condensed phases (liquids, solids, in gases of not-too-low pressure), part of the excitation energy will be transformed into heat by collisional deactivation (thermal quenching). The decay time, therefore, has to be replaced by an effective excited-state lifetime, resulting in a more complicated exponential decay law that depends on the collision frequency, the energy imparted to the excited atoms of the centre that causes the transfer of excitation energy into heat (activation energy), a constant, and the temperature of the luminescent material. This law describes the actual luminescence decay of a great number of luminescent materials; e.g., calcium tungstate.

Prolonging the emission time of phosphors up to days or even longer (production of phosphorescence of the phosphors) is possible by inserting traps into the host crystal. Trapped electrons cannot return directly to the centre. In order to be released from the traps they must first obtain additional thermal energy—in this case, thermal energy stimulates luminescence—after which they recombine with a centre and undergo radiative transition. Trapping in crystals has its analogy to forbidden transitions in molecules (triplet–singlet transitions) or in radiation processes from metastable atomic-energy levels.

An example of a practical application of stimulated emission of a phosphor with trapped electrons is cubic strontium sulfide/selenide activated with samarium and europium ions, the coactivators being strontium sulfate and calcium fluoride. This phosphor has been used in devices for viewing scenes at night by reflected infrared light emitted by infrared lamps. The traps in this phosphor have been identified as samarium ions, whereas europium ions are the active ions in the centres. The phosphor is first excited by photons (photon) of about three electron volts (blue light), which results in an ejection of an electron from a europium ion (Eu²⁺) centre. This excited electron is trapped (electron capture) by a triply charged samarium ion (Sm³⁺), which is transferred to a doubly charged samarium ion (Sm²⁺). Heat or irradiation by infrared photons releases one electron from the doubly charged samarium ion (Sm²⁺). The electron is then recaptured from a triply charged europium ion (Eu³⁺), yielding an excited doubly charged europium ion (Eu²⁺), which returns to its ground state by emitting a photon of 2.2 electron volts energy (yellow light). The trap depth of this phosphor (i.e., the energy required for release of an electron from it) is large compared to the thermal energy of the lattice of the host crystal, and, therefore, the lifetime of the traps at room temperature is many months long. Bombarding this phosphor with photons of energy higher than that of infrared photons but not sufficient for excitation can lead to photoquenching: the traps are emptied far more rapidly, and thermal deactivation of the centres is enhanced.

When iron, cobalt, or nickel ions are present in a phosphor, an excited electron can be captured by these ions. The excitation energy is then emitted as infrared photons, not as visible light, so that luminescence is quenched. These ions, therefore, are called killers—the killing process being opposite to stimulation.

In chemiluminescence, such as the oxidation of luminol, light emission depends not only on radiative and quenching or intramolecular deactivation processes but also on the efficiency of the chemical reaction leading to molecules in an electronically excited state.

In bioluminescence reactions, the production of electronically excited molecules, as well as their radiative transitions back to their ground state, is efficiently catalyzed by the enzymes acting here, and bioluminescence light output is therefore high.

The luminescence photons emitted by one kind of excited atom, molecule, or phosphor can excite another to emit its specific luminescence: this type of energy transfer is observed with inorganic as well as organic substances. Thus, excited benzene molecules can excite naphthalene molecules by radiative-energy transfer. The radiation produced by the luminol chemiluminescence can produce fluorescence when fluorescein is added to the reaction mixture. In most of these cases the acceptor molecules have luminescent electrons with energy levels lower than those of the primary excited molecules, and emitted secondary luminescence is therefore of longer wavelength than the primary. Practical application of this phenomenon, called cascading, is used in radar kinescopes, which have composite fluorescent screens consisting of a layer of blue-emitting zinc sulfide/silver (chloride) phosphor—the hexagonal crystal, ZnS/Ag(Cl) deposited on a layer of yellow-emitting zinc or cadmium sulfide/copper 【chloride】 phosphor 【the hexagonal crystal, (Zn,Cd)S/Cu (Cl)】.

The cathode-ray electrons excite the blue-emitting phosphor, whose photons, in turn, excite the yellow-emitting phosphor, which has traps with a decay time of about 10 seconds. Excitation of the blue-emitting phosphor alone would be unfavourable, as the sharply focussed cathode rays are absorbed by the blue phosphor to a small extent only, and its decay time is too short; also, direct excitation of the yellow-emitting phosphor alone would yield poor efficiency because the traps are emptied too rapidly by the heat produced by the relatively high-energetic electron impact.

Another energy-transfer mechanism is referred to as sensitization: a calcium carbonate phosphor (rhombohedral CaCO₃/Mn), for example, emits orange light under cathode-ray irradiation but is not excited by the 254-nanometre emission of mercury atoms, whereas this emission produces the same orange light with calcium carbonate (rhombohedral CaCO₃) activated by manganese and lead ions. This is not cascade luminescence: a mechanical mixture of a manganese and a lead-activated calcium carbonate exhibits no emission under ultraviolet radiation. In a phosphor containing both activators, the lead ions act as sensitizers in introducing an additional excitation band into the system from which the manganese ions get their excitation energy in a nonradiative energy transfer. Similar sensitization is observed in gases and in liquids.

In this diagram, the potential energy of a centre is plotted as a function of the average distance () between the atoms: * represents the ground state and _o represents the lowest excited state of the centre. In a tetrahedral permanganate-ion centre (MnO₄), for example  would be the average distance between the central manganese ion and an oxygen ion in any of the corners of the tetrahedron.

At a temperature of absolute zero the ground-state energy level is near the bottom of curve I at the minimum amplitude of atomic vibration. At room temperature (300 K 【81° F】) the ground state lies higher, at a, where the centre has considerable vibrational energy. When an electron of the centre is excited, it is lifted to the higher energy level at b in curve II. This electronic transition occurs far more rapidly than the readjustment of the atoms of the centre, which then occurs within a time of about 10⁻¹² second to reach the minimum vibrational level at c. The energy difference (b − c) is dissipated as heat in the host-crystal lattice. From the excited-state level c, the electron can return to the ground-state level d shown in Curve I, the liberated energy being emitted as a photon.

The last step is a readjustment of the centre to a, the energy difference (d − a) again being dissipated as heat. Nonradiative transition of the excited electron back to its ground state occurs when the electron is excited to an energy level above the intersection point f of the ground-state and the excited-state energy curve. This is caused mainly by increasing the vibrations of the lattice by application of higher temperatures. The energy difference (f − c) is equal to the activation energy already mentioned, and therefore most centres become increasingly nonradiative at higher temperatures. In trap-type phosphors the temperature must be sufficiently high, of course, to eject the electron from the traps.

In some phosphors—calcium tungstate (CaWO₄), for example—absorption and emission of the exciting energy appear to take place mainly in the same centre; the excited electron remains near the centre. Such phosphors do not exhibit photoconductivity because only a few excited electrons succeed in reaching the conduction band where they are freely mobile. The luminescence decay is exponential.

Zinc sulfide phosphors, however, are photoconducting (photoconductivity), which means that many excited electrons are lifted to the conduction band of the host crystal. The energy levels of different centres and of the host-crystal lattice have to be taken into account simultaneously.

The activator ions introduce additional ground-state levels and excited-state levels of energies between those of the valence and the conduction band of the zinc sulfide. When the excitation energy is sufficiently high, an electron is raised to the conduction band (1 → 2, 5 → 6, corresponding to the ionization continuum in a gas). It moves away from the centre (2 → 3, 6 → 8) and may either be trapped by an imperfection of the lattice (8) or return to an ionized centre (activator), in which it first occupies an excited level (3 → 4) and then drops to the ground state of the activator centre by emitting a photon. An activator centre that captures such an excited electron has already lost one of its own electrons to a positive hole (electron vacancy) in the host-crystal lattice.

The energetic level of the traps is about 0.25 electron volt beneath the conduction-band level. A trapped electron (8) must be raised to the conduction band by thermal energy before a recombination with an ionized activator centre can occur. The green emission (530 nanometres) of the zinc sulfide phosphor (ZnS/Cu) is explained by the recombination of an electron from the conduction band and a copper ion in an activator centre (7 → 9); the blue emission (463 nanometres) is due to recombination of the excited electron and a copper ion in an interstitial place.

Direct excitation of the activator centres is also possible. When an electron recombines with a killer ion (10), no visible emission occurs.

In solid-state electroluminescence, the radiative processes occurring in a phosphor under irradiation are produced by applying external electric fields of several hundred volts, alternating at several thousand cycles per second. Special preparations of zinc sulfide (hexagonal ZnS), with an iodine coactivator and high concentrations of a copper activator, are embedded in a thin layer of about 0.01 centimetre (0.004 inch) of insulating organic material or glass, which is mounted between the electrodes.

High luminescence efficiencies result. Application of a direct-current field yields luminescence in crystals of gallium arsenide (GaAs), silicon carbide (SiC), cadmium sulfide (CdS), and zinc monocrystals of sulfide with copper activator (ZnS/Cu); the cathode injects electrons into the conduction band, whereas the anode removes electrons.

The efficiency of luminescence emission must be regarded on an energy and a quantum basis. When every exciting photon yields an emitted photon of the same energy (as is the case for resonance excitation—i.e., excitation of fluorescence by a monochromatic light of exactly the same wavelengths as the resulting fluorescence—and radiation of isolated atoms in dilute gases), the luminescence efficiency is 100 percent with respect to input energy as well as to the number of quanta. When the number of secondary photons is equal to that of the primary but their energy is less because some energy is dissipated as heat, the quantum efficiency is 100 percent but the luminescence efficiency is less than 100 percent. The quantum efficiency of most luminescences is far lower than 100 percent; zinc sulfide phosphors have about 20 percent efficiency, and solid-state electroluminescence is less than 10 percent efficient.

In chemiluminescence the quantum efficiency is about 1 percent in “brilliant” reactions, such as the oxidation of luminol, and up to 23 percent in the oxalate chemiluminescence. Solid-state electroluminescence, or electroluminescence of gases excited by high-frequency electric fields, is usually less than 10 percent.

The light intensity of luminescent processes depends chiefly on the excitation intensity, the density, and the lifetime of the radiative atoms, molecules, or centres. For practical purposes this luminous intensity per unit area is called photometric brightness or luminance of a material and is measured in lambert or millilambert (0.001 lambert) units (one lambert is equal to one candle per square centimetre divided by π).