Permaglow

Recently I posted an idea called "Ultrablack" and received this comment. [UV dyes work because it is easy to step down the energy of light from UV to visible. To go from IR to visible, you're stepping up the energy, which is trickier.

However, there is a bigger problem with this. UV enhanced whites reflect more light than falls on them (because the UV is converted to visible light), and thus appear whiter than white. ]

Thus spake [Dr Curry]. It got me thinking. UV reflecting dyes reflect more visible light than falls on them, because invisible UV is "stepped down" to visible. But what about all the other energetic radiation of even shorter wavelength than UV? Gamma rays and their ilk are flying thru the walls all the time and burrowing into the earth, their energy wasted. Why not put all this energy to good use.

I propose that walls be painted with reflective surfaces that "step down" the energy of this short wavelength radiation. By converting these invisible rays to visible light, the walls should have a permanent glow - more in the daytime, when the sun bathes us in such rays. Such illumination would be very useful for dank, dark basements, like the one I am sitting in.

It might be necessary to have some sort of focusing device, in case the glow produced is too diffuse to be useful. The focuser would collect glow from an entire wall and re-emit it from a small area, mimicking a light bulb.