Title: luminescence
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - luminescence
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.L03641
Status: current

Definition
Spontaneous emission of radiation from an electronically or vibrationally excited species not in thermal equilibrium with its environment.

Related Terms
- Spontaneous emission: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S05886
- bioluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/B00659
- chemiluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01045
- electro-generated chemiluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E01966
- fluorescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/F02453
- phosphorescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04569
- photoluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04623
- radioluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/R05111
- sonoluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S05767
- thermoluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/T06325
- triboluminescence: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/T06499

Sources
- PAC, 1994, 66, 2513. 'Nomenclature for radioanalytical chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)' on page 2522 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199466122513)
- PAC, 1996, 68, 2223. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2252 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122223)

Related References
- Orange Book, 2nd ed., p. 184 (https://media.iupac.org/publications/analytical_compendium/)
- PAC, 1990, 62, 2167. 'Glossary of atmospheric chemistry terms (Recommendations 1990)' on page 2200 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199062112167)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/L03641/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/L03641/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/L03641/xml

Citation: Citation: 'luminescence' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.L03641
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-01T16:23:58+00:00