In 1926 Destriau became an engineer at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris. Thereafter he worked in the x-ray device industry. From 1932 until 1941 Destriau worked at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. A brief stay at the University of Bordeaux was followed in 1943 by a move to Paris. In 1946 Destriau became professor at the University of Poitiers and in 1954 at the Sorbonne in Paris. Later Destriau worked for Westinghouse Electric.^[3]

Destriau worked in the field of magnetism and X-ray dosimetry of ionizing radiation. Best-known is his research on electroluminescence, which he carried out in 1935 in the Paris laboratory of Marie Curie, who had died a year earlier. Destriau observed that zinc sulfide crystals fluoresced when doped with traces of copper ions and suspended in castor oil between two mica platelets, with a strong alternating electric field applied.^[4] Later he replaced the castor oil and mica with a polymer binder.^[5]

The effect of electroluminescence is therefore also referred to in some publications as the "Destriau effect". According to some publications, Destriau was the first to use the term "electrophotoluminescence".^[6][7] In his publications, he himself called the light "Losev-Light", after the Russian radio frequency technician Oleg Losev, who in 1927 worked with silicon carbide crystals to induce a light effect (also electroluminescence).^[8]