Mechanoluminescence

Abstract

Mechanoluminescence (ML) is a type of luminescence induced during any mechanical action on solids. It can be excited by grinding, rubbing, cutting, cleaving, shaking, scratching, compressing, or crushing of solids. ML can also be excited by thermal shocks caused by drastic cooling or heating of materials or by the shock waves produced during exposure of samples to powerful laser pulses. ML also appears during the deformation caused by the phase transition or growth of certain crystals as well as during separation of two dissimilar materials in contact. The phenomenon of ML has also been called by many other names, such as tren-nugslicht, triboluminescence, piezoluminescence, deformation luminescence, and stress-activated luminescence. Since the prefix ``mechano'' is correlated in a general way with different mechanical concepts, such as deformation, piezo, tribo, stress, fracto, plastico, elastico, cutting, cleaving, grinding, rubbing, compressing, and crushing, ``mechanoluminescence'' has been the preferred nomenclature (Chandra and Shrivastava, 1978; Sodomka, 1978; Krauya et al., 1978, 1981; Sodomka et al., 1980; Molotskii, 1983; Mukhopadhyay, 1984; Tokhmetov and Vettegren, 1990; Batylin et al., 1992).