Tritium deuterium, another isotope of hydrogen, by Ernest Rutherford, Mark Oliphant, and Paul Harteck. However, their experiment could not isolate tritium, which was later accomplished by Luis Alvarez and Robert Cornog, who also realized tritium's radioactivity. Willard F. Libby recognized that tritium could be used for radiometric dating of water and wine. Tritium Tritium ( or ; symbol ' or ', also known as hydrogen-3) is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium (sometimes called a triton) contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of protium (by far the most abundant hydrogen isotope) contains one proton and
Tritium radioluminescence for night use and small lights (which need to be more reliable than battery powered lights yet not interfere with night vision or be bright enough to easily give away one's location) used mostly by military personnel fall under the latter application. Tritium lighting is made using glass tubes with a phosphor layer in them and tritium gas inside the tube. Such a tube is known as a "gaseous tritium light source" (GTLS), or "beta light" (since the tritium undergoes beta decay). The tritium in a gaseous tritium light source undergoes beta decay, releasing electrons that cause the phosphor layer