It's similar phenomena. When light impinges on a material it is absorbed. Electrons in the ground state are lifted into a higher state, and after a very short time (nanoseconds) they relax, re-emitting that light. That light goes in every direction possible, but the light that you perceive is that fraction of the light that is emitted back in your direction...or in a refracted direction.
I do not believe that this is how refraction works. It would imply that light of frequencies other than those corresponding to the bandgap energies of the material would proceed unrefracted, or be absorbed. Furthermore, it would render coherent light incoherent, since nanoseconds are very large compared to the frequencies involved in visible light, and this incoherence would result in the light being re-emitted in every direction, not a particular refracted direction. In short, although the phenomenon you are describing is real, it is very different from refraction. It is phosphorescence and fluorescence.
