The absorption and subsequent re-radiation of light by organic and inorganic specimens is typically the result of well-established physical phenomena described as being either fluorescence or phosphorescence. The emission of light through the fluorescence process is nearly simultaneous with the absorption of the excitation light due to a relatively short time delay between photon absorption and emission, ranging usually less than a microsecond in duration. When emission persists longer after the excitation light has been extinguished, the phenomenon is referred to as phosphorescence.