Spatio-Temporal Effect of Gas Pressure on Excited Xe Atoms in Ultrafine Pixel Pitch AC Plasma Display Panels

Abstract

The kaleidoscopic change in the distributions of excited xenon (Xe) atom density was investigated under a high gas pressure condition in a unit microdischarge cell on a coplanar-structured alternating-current plasma display panel with an ultrafine pixel pitch by using microscopic laser absorption spectroscopy. As the gas pressure increased, the peak densities of the excited atoms not only increased but the peak position on the anode side also tended to shift toward the center of the discharge gap by expanding in width. The temporal behavior of the excited Xe atom density in the resonant state (1s4) did not change significantly with the pressure since the decay rate was mostly governed by the effective lifetime of the imprisoned resonance radiation. On the contrary, the decay rate of the excited Xe atoms in the metastable state (1s5) decreased drastically with the pressure due to an increase in the three-body collision rate. This implied that the metastable state atoms were efficiently converted to Xe excimers, leading to an increase in the vacuum ultraviolet emission.