How to make tritium glow brighter?

[Aiizaiisia]

I have 1.5x6mm tritium vials on my quantum DD but they don't seem to look as bright as Steve Lu's DD. I know it may be high or low pressure contents of the tritium. But just wondering if there is any other way to make it look brighter? Maybe by using smoke or anything?

 

[ledmitter_nli]

I have 1.5x6mm tritium vials on my quantum DD but they don't seem to look as bright as Steve Lu's DD. I know it may be high or low pressure contents of the tritium. But just wondering if there is any other way to make it look brighter? Maybe by using smoke or anything?

I think bundling them into arrays is the only way. Wrap a reflector behind them.

 

[Yoda4561]

Paint some bright white enamel into the recess for the vial and let dry before setting them with resin. (edit: this really only works if there's a fair gap between the vial and the enamel, otherwise backing the vial with some shiny aluminum or other reflective material will be all you can do)

 

[Aiizaiisia]

Now I'm wondering how Steve ku made it happen without any reflector in his photo. Let me know if it is possible to apply the white enamel on the quantum dd. I don't think Steve did it with white enamel. Strange thing isn't it?

 

[gunga]

For photography, shining a uv light on it makes it glow a lot brighter.

 

[Silgt]

I believe the trick is in the long exposure photography...maybe charging them up with a bit of UV lights before photography will help? Just guessing...still figuring out the best way to photograph my lights especially those with trits


Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Aiizaiisia]

I didn't know using UV light can make tritium brighter. I don't have an UV light. Anyone kind enough to post pictures of tritium before and after UV exposure?

 

[nfetterly]

You don't really "charge" tritium. Tritium glow isn't visible when it is bright out, but you see it at night when it's dark, good for;

• locating my keys hanging up with my Quantum DD attached.
• locating an item in my bag with my 6 vial tritium "locator" attached to it.
• Seeing my SWM V10R on bedside table in hotelroom in dark

Using a UV light to "excite" (??) the tritium vial is useful for photography so that you can see the effect of both the item & the tritium. Otherwise it's a crappy photo of both. I'm sure someone can correct some of this - but essentially that's my understanding of it.

 

[Norm]

I didn't know using UV light can make tritium brighter. I don't have an UV light. Anyone kind enough to post pictures of tritium before and after UV exposure?

Note unlike Glow In The Dark stuff the UV only make the tritium brighter when the UV is on, there is no lasting effect once the UV is off.

UV was used when I took the pick for my avatar.

Norm

 

[TEEJ]

The idea of a reflector does work. If I hang a trit in front of a piece of al foil, the foil becomes part of the light you see, etc. Even a white piece of paper, etc, makes more light apparent.

I think, but have not tested, to see if GITD material, used to surround/make a nest for a trit, would absorb the trit's light, and then glow itself, adding to the total luminance. I can't see why not...?

GITD materials DO take a serious charge from a UV light. I have GITD O rings on a lot of stuff to help me avoid losing it...and I have UV lights that I use to add some pop to the rings before going into the dark with them, etc.

 

[LEDAdd1ct]

To echo the above:

There is nothing you can do to make tritium glow brighter.

You can make it appear brighter, or you can provide a more reflective background.

Tritium's brightness goes in only one direction, decreasing with the passage of time.

 

[yoyoman]

I have a cheapo uv light that I use to charge GITD stuff and I tried it on my trits. Yes, it makes them shine. It doesn't charge them, but they glow when the uv is on. Cool. Sorry, no pics.

 

[Aiizaiisia]

Note unlike Glow In The Dark stuff the UV only make the tritium brighter when the UV is on, there is no lasting effect once the UV is off.

UV was used when I took the pick for my avatar.

Norm

Thanks, it looks as bright as those in Steve's photo. But wondering again, UV light are able to "excite" tritium vials,in the vials are tritium that decays phosphor. By "exciting" them with UV, does it cause it to have premature failure? Example normal tritium vials work fine for 25 years but if you put it under UV, will it fail in just 10 years?

 

[Yoda4561]

The phosphors have non-measurable degradation after 10 years, what "wears out" is the tritium itself. It has a very short halflife compared to most radioactive materials, so it emits less radiation to excite the phosphors with every year that goes by, this is why Tritium vials dim over time. At 25 years a tritium vial is going to be so dim you'll barely be able to see it unless it's very dark and your eyes have adapted. Shine a UV light on a 25 year old dim vial and a new bright one and they'll look exactly the same in terms of brightness.

 

[nfetterly]

GREAT for finding stuff in the dark - or in the bottom of a black bag. Or on a nightstand in a dark hotel room. That's what I use mine for. & taking cool pics with a UV light.

 

[Aiizaiisia]

The phosphors have non-measurable degradation after 10 years, what "wears out" is the tritium itself. It has a very short halflife compared to most radioactive materials, so it emits less radiation to excite the phosphors with every year that goes by, this is why Tritium vials dim over time. At 25 years a tritium vial is going to be so dim you'll barely be able to see it unless it's very dark and your eyes have adapted. Shine a UV light on a 25 year old dim vial and a new bright one and they'll look exactly the same in terms of brightness.

Thanks for the nice explanation

 

[Esko]

I think, but have not tested, to see if GITD material, used to surround/make a nest for a trit, would absorb the trit's light, and then glow itself, adding to the total luminance. I can't see why not...?

A good reflector base would reflect up to ~100% of the continuous tritium glow. Even if you used GITD material, how could it emit more than the reflector, which is reflecting (almost) everything? There is no charging-discharging cycles, because the tritium glow is constant.

Of course, GITD material could be charged by the light coming from outside. After turning the lights off, it would be brighter for some hours. Just like a bare GITD slot (and it would go on with the dim tritium glow after the GITD paint has discharged).

 

[brigman]

The phosphors have non-measurable degradation after 10 years, what "wears out" is the tritium itself. It has a very short halflife compared to most radioactive materials, so it emits less radiation to excite the phosphors with every year that goes by, this is why Tritium vials dim over time. At 25 years a tritium vial is going to be so dim you'll barely be able to see it unless it's very dark and your eyes have adapted. Shine a UV light on a 25 year old dim vial and a new bright one and they'll look exactly the same in terms of brightness.

That's right, the tritium nucleus decays and releases an electron, just like your old TV set (CRT) used to, except the CRT used to rip them off a negatively charged cathode via electrostatic attraction instead. Both make the electrons collide with phosphorous which, when hit by electrons, happens to emit visible light. The radioactive decay is a nuclear process, and as such happens at the same rate regardless of temperature, chemistry, inbound electromagnetic radiation (UV light) and any other non-nuclear phenomenon. The increase in brightness witnessed from inbound UV light is probably caused by a UV sensitive compound (possibly also a phosphor) that converts UV light to visible or, causes the compound to eject electrons (onto the phosphor).

The only way to increase the intensity of the light is to increase the amount of tritium present in the container. Increase the number of tritium molecules by 10 and the brightness increases by 10 because the number of nuclear decay events will increase by 10. This would increase the pressure 10 fold also, and the risk of containment failure would increase correspondingly (unless you are some 100m underwater where the pressure is similarly high).

So the next question should be, what otherwise transparent material has the highest shear stress? Call me mad, but let's load it up with, say, 5x atmospheric pressure tritium and watch it glow!