Photon trapping in ruby and lanthanide-doped materials: Recollections and revival

After some recollections of phonon and photon trapping in ruby, a critical review of this effect of renewed interest in trivalent lanthanide-doped materials is presented showing that the two independent derivations taking their roots in the work of Milne for gases and of Birks for organic scintillators are practically described by an analogous phenomenological equation when re-absorption is weak. The problem of obtaining “extrinsic” quantum efficiency larger than one is briefly discussed.