Hi Lucie,

If You are doing a thesis or writing a paper I would suggest to avoid so vague terms, Phosphor (is not equal to phosphorescent material) may be referred to a material that display phosphorescence and/or luminescence - basically everything that glows (this also could include such materials as Luminol/Fe pair which can glow due to ox/red processes (aka chemiluminescence which is not facilitated by absorption of energy from another source)) ,  So clearly the assumption that Phosphors are scintillators is false.

On a side note purely organic materials may also exhibit phosphorescence (though somewhat rare), this is not only limited to transition metal or of rare earth containing complexes.

Secondly from what I have seen Scintillators are materials which are excited by ionizing radiation (which is not the same as visible light spectrum for most means and purposes) which is higher in energy and would facilitate degradation of the vast majority of luminophores, thats why most luminescent and phosphorescent materials are not applicable, although very few are.

Hope this helps,

Kaspars

Hi, 

In short a phosphor is a luminescent material. It shows emission after being stimulated by e.g. light. Typically I would refer by phosphor to inorganic materials. These can be transition metal or lanthanide activated but also self-activated as well as s-p ions act8vated phosphors exist. For example a quantum dot is not a phosphor for me by the way. 

A scintillator is a material that can show flashes of emited light of various wavelengths after stimulation with ionuzing radiation (X-rays, gamma rays etc) or high energy particles (alpha, beta etc).

All in all for most part all scintillators can be phosphors but not all phosphors are scintillators. Also much different requirements are put on materials depending on are these for use as phosphors or as scintillators.

Alek

Hi Lucie,

A luminescent material absorbs energy in one region of the electromagnetic spectrum and emits radiation energy in another region of the spectrum. Typically, the energy of the photons emitted is lower than the energy of the photons absorbed. A luminescent material in powder form is commonly called a phosphor, while a luminescent material in the form of a transparent solid body is commonly called a scintillator.

Most useful phosphors and scintillators emit radiation in the visible portion of the spectrum in response to the absorption of radiation which is outside the visible portion of the spectrum. Most phosphors are responsive to more energetic portions of the  electromagnetic spectrum than the visible portion of the spectrum. Thus, there are phosphors and scintillators which are responsive to ultraviolet light (as in fluorescent lamps), electrons (as in cathode ray tubes) and x-ray (as in radiography).

Still, it is very ambiguous.

lets narrow the question.

A substance, a media, which produces visible radiation, when (and only when) influenced by high-energy photons like X-rays, or Gamma-rays:

Is it a scintillator, a phosphor, or both? Or how can we separate them? Can you give a pair of examples?

My guess, phosphor, is just a slang from early CRT era. Technically, we are talking about scintillators, whenever those are crystalline, or polymer; solid or liquid.