selfemissive

Selfemissive (often hyphenated as self-emissive) describes objects or materials that generate light through internal processes, rather than merely reflecting or transmitting ambient light. The term is used across physics, materials science, display technology, and computer graphics.

In physics, a self-emissive material emits photons when excited by energy such as heat, electricity, chemical reactions, or light itself. This category includes thermal emitters (hot objects), electroluminescent devices like LEDs and OLEDs, and luminescent materials such as phosphors that glow after excitation. The emitted light has a characteristic spectrum determined by the material and its excitation.

In display technology, self-emissive displays generate light at the pixel level, enabling high contrast, true blacks, and wide viewing angles. Common self-emissive display technologies are organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and microLEDs. These contrasts with LCDs, which rely on a backlight and are not self-emissive. The self-emissive approach offers advantages in image quality and thickness but presents challenges such as manufacturing complexity, potential aging or burn-in, and energy efficiency considerations.

In computer graphics and rendering, self-emissive materials contribute light to a scene via an emission term. They model light-emitting objects such as lamps, glowing liquids, or cosmic bodies, and interact with global illumination calculations to influence lighting and shading of surrounding surfaces.

Related concepts include emissivity, a material’s tendency to emit radiation, and emission spectra, which describe the wavelengths produced. Selfemissive materials thereby span practical lighting, display engineering, and digital rendering contexts.