Characteristics of a micro dielectric barrier discharge ignited by a cold cathode with high ion-induced secondary electron emission for plasma display panel

We present here measurements of plasma display panel (PDP) ignited by SrO and SrCaO cold cathodes with high yield of ion-induced secondary electron emission (high gamma(1)). SrO- and SrCaO-cathode PDPs attain high luminous efficacy at low applied voltage, where the breakdown voltage is 30% lower than that of ordinary MgO-cathode PDP. Current and emission measurement clearly demonstrates that SrO- and SrCaO-cathode PDPs operated at low voltage realize a discharge with smaller current flow and lower electron energy, which are considerably appropriate for high luminous efficacy of PDP. Simulation analysis shows the effect of the high-gamma(1), cathode on the luminous efficacy of PDP. A discharge ignited by the high-gamma(1), cathode realizes high electron heating efficiency due to the abundant seed electrons from the high-gamma(1). cathode, resulting in high luminous efficacy of PDP. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3253723]