Abstract: The character of solid state cathodoluminescence (SSCL), a new excitation mechanism of luminescence, has been identified and its universality demonstrated. The spectrum of SSCL and its change in behavior with the increase of driving voltage have been analyzed in detail. It is shown that SSCL includes the luminescence from exciton recombination and expanded state recombination. Under a high electric field, excitons dissociate to electrons and holes in expanded states, which results in luminescence from the expanded state recombination. The transient and decay characteristics of SSCL have also been investigated. It is concluded that the traditional phase method cannot be used to assess the temporal relationship between SSCL and the driving voltage. From the variation of SSCL with the excitation driving frequency we propose a new method to measure the true luminescence lifetime.