Luminescence - Definition and Overview

Luminescence is any emission of electromagnetic radiation. Historically, even radioactivity was first thought of as a form of as "radioluminescence", although it is today considered to be radioactivity since it involves more than electromagnetic radiation.

The word Luminescence actually refers to cold light; and the term was originally used to refer to bodies that emitted light at low temperatures, in comparison with temperature radiation or electromagnetic radiation for bodies at high temperatures. The phenomenon occurs in materials, organisms, and chemical reactions with the common property that electromagnetic radiation is emitted near low temperatures by rubbing two insulators

See also: Phosphorescence, Fluorescence (known together as photoluminescence), Thermoluminescence, Triboluminescence, Chemoluminescence, Bioluminescence, Crystalloluminescence, Electroluminescence.

External links

• Luminescence on Scienceworld (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Luminescence.html)