With the progress of nuclear radiation technology in China, radiation detection has been developed rapidly in recent years, which is widely used in radiation safety monitoring, radioactive medicine diagnosis and treatment, X-ray security inspection system, industrial non-destructive detection, microscopic particle track detection and many other fields. As a new radiation detection method, radio-photoluminescence (RPL) is a phenomenon in which a new luminescence center is generated inside a material under the ionizing radiation and is excited by ultraviolet light to emit light. RPL materials usually have the characteristics of storing radiation information, almost no attenuation of information, good linear dose response, high radiation 无 机 材 料 学 报 sensitivity, low energy dependence and repeatable reading, which make up for the shortcomings of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) materials and thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) materials in storage stability and reusability. Since the RPL phenomenon was reported, RPL materials have emerged one after another, from the traditional materials as Ag-doped phosphate glass, Al2O3:C,Mg and LiF, to the novel materials as Cu-doped RPL system, Sm-doped RPL system and undoped RPL system materials, et al. Meanwhile, the applications of RPL materials have also been explored. RPL materials have become one of the indispensable materials in the field of radiation detection. Based on this, this paper summarizes the latest development of RPL materials, focuses on the luminescence principle, performance characteristics and applications of traditional & novel RPL materials. It especially compares the performance of different RPL materials in radiation detection. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of RPL materials are summarized and analyzed. And also the development trend of RPL materials is prospected.