Theoretical formulation of the vacuum ultraviolet production efficiency ina plasma display panel

The theoretical formulation given in this article allows the vacuum ultravi olet (VUV) production efficiency to be calculated from the electron tempera ture of the plasma and the gas parameters including gas mixing ratio, excit ation energies, and excitation cross sections using the separately determin ed conversion efficiency of the plasma input power into the electron heatin g power. The VUV production efficiencies calculated for (Ne+Xe) mixture (ne on (Ne) and xenon (Xe) mixture) discharge gases using the formulation show that the efficiency can be increased by decreasing the electron temperature and by increasing the amount of Xe in the gas mixture. A method for determ ining the electron temperature of the plasma display panel (PDP) plasma fro m emission intensity measurements was also given, and was used to show that the electron temperature in the ordinary PDP plasma is 3 eV. (C) 2000 Amer ican Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)05223-3].