Rt. Mcgrath et al., Measurements and simulations of VUV emissions from plasma flat panel display pixel microdischarges, IEEE PLAS S, 26(5), 1998, pp. 1532-1542
This paper reports on measurements of the principal vacuum ultra-violet emi
ssion lines from micro discharges operating with helium/xenon gas mixture u
sed in full color plasma driven pat panel display pixels. The principal emi
ssion lines observed are the 147 and 129 nm lines from atomic xenon transit
ions and the relatively broad emissions from xenon dimers centered near 173
nm. We report on the changing intensities of these lines with variation in
xenon concentration in the pixel gas mixtures, which affect the overall lu
minous efficiency of the display. A one-dimensional computer model has been
used to simulate the discharge evolution. The model tracks the populations
of twelve different representative quantum energy levels of the helium and
xenon atoms, as well as the production and decay of the xenon dimers. The
atomic physics description is sufficiently detailed to allow prediction of
the relative intensities of the dominant emission lines. We find that model
predicted intensities for xenon atomic and dimer emission lines agree well
with experimental measurements.