Crossword clues for phosphorescence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Phosphorescence \Phos`phor*es"cence\, n. [Cf. F. phosphorescence.]
The quality or state of being phosphorescent; or the act of phosphorescing.
A phosphoric light.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1796, from verb phosphoresce (1794; see phosphorescent) + -ence.
Wiktionary
n. The emission of light without any perceptible heat; the quality of being phosphorescent.
WordNet
n. a fluorescence that persists after the bombarding radiation has ceased
Wikipedia
Phosphorescence is a specific type of photoluminescence related to fluorescence. Unlike fluorescence, a phosphorescent material does not immediately re-emit the radiation it absorbs. The slower time scales of the re-emission are associated with " forbidden" energy state transitions in quantum mechanics. As these transitions occur very slowly in certain materials, absorbed radiation may be re-emitted at a lower intensity for up to several hours after the original excitation.
Commonly seen examples of phosphorescent materials are the glow-in-the-dark toys, paint, and clock dials that glow for some time after being charged with a bright light such as in any normal reading or room light. Typically the glowing then slowly fades out within minutes to up to a few hours in a dark room.
The study of phosphorescent materials led to the discovery of radioactivity in 1896.
Ironically, white phosphorus (from which phosphorescence takes its name) does not actually exhibit this property, but rather chemiluminescence.
Usage examples of "phosphorescence".
All the while the shaft of phosphorescence from the well was getting brighter and brighter, bringing to the minds of the huddled men, a sense of doom and abnormality which far outraced any image their conscious minds could form.
Day came, and the phosphorescence of low clouds gave place to the misty twilight of that northern world, and still the vile bird winged meaningly through the cold and silence.
The moment Venus sets, Dr Maturin is to read from the first page he opens, by the phosphorescence alone.
Outlined in blue, green, or violet phosphorescence, the homes of her wealthier neighbors glowed all around her.
Darting and wheeling through curtains of pale phosphorescence, it was casting about in the bent spaces surrounding the stronghold.
The pale phosphorescence of the carvings gleaming on his naked limbs, Tsabrak spat venom onto his blade.
Over the years, the chalk had lost most of its phosphorescence, but Houndaer could still read the score of a fencing bout in faintly gleaming ciphers.
And in two weeks there was not any sunlight at all, but only a weird grey twilight shining through a dome of eternal cloud by day, and a cold starless phosphorescence from the under side of that cloud by night.
He observed the greater phosphorescence of the clouds at his northerly point, and more than once thought he saw dark shapes outlined against them.
Only those remote and impassable peaks on the right gave him any sense of direction, and even they were less clear as the grey twilight waned and the sickly phosphorescence of the clouds took its place.
The phosphorescence of the brooding clouds shewed it plainly, and even silhouetted parts of it as vapours glowed behind.
Again and again were those huge winged lions shewn, their mighty flanks of diarite glistening in the grey twilight of the day and the cloudy phosphorescence of the night.
Crossing the threshold into the swarming temple of unknown darkness, I turned once to look at the outside world as the churchyard phosphorescence cast a sickly glow on the hilltop pavement.
A dim though distinct luminosity seemed to inhere in all the vegetation, grass, leaves, and blossoms alike, while at one moment a detached piece of the phosphorescence appeared to stir furtively in the yard near the barn.
And still the pale phosphorescence glowed in that detestably ancient woodwork.