Mechanoluminescence in Scintillators

Scintillating materials generate photons when they are hit by radiations and for this reason are used in high-energy physics to detect particle collisions, in medical imaging or in security devices. Scintillation is an example of Radioluminescence: however there are materials which may exhibit Electroluminescence (photon emission when acted by an electric field) or Mechanoluminescence (photon emission by elastic deformation, fracture or scratch). These phenomena, which are cross- correlated affects the photon production and therefore a deeper knowl- edge of them is needed. As we have already done for non-deformable scintillators, we obtain a continuum model for Mechanoluminescence (in the isothermal and elastic case), which allows to descibe from a phenomenological point of view the experimentally-obtained relations between mechanical stress and scintillation efficiency.