After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he escaped to central China's Hubei province, where he studied at Yunyang National Shandong Middle School (郧阳国立山东中学), then fled to southwest China's Sichuan province, and studied in Mianyang National No.
In 1950, he was transferred to the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to engage in solid-state luminescence research.
One year later, he was sent to study at the Lebedev Physical Institute, earning his vice-doctorate degree in 1955.
[1][2][3] In September 1965, adjusted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics was established with luminescence as its main research direction.
[2] In 1980, Xu, together with Xu Shaohong (许少鸿), Wu Boxuan (吴伯僖) and others, jointly founded the Luminescence Branch Society of the Chinese Physical Society and served as its first president.