Thin Film Energy‐Controlled Variable Color Cathodoluminescent Screens

Abstract

A new technique for obtaining energy‐variable multicolor cathodoluminescent display screens is presented. This technique employs radio frequency ion plasma sputtering of one thin‐film phosphor material over a dissimilar phosphor substrate. The technique employed differs from the old “Penetron” screen in that the substrate and the secondary phosphor layer are single‐crystal materials. This results in higher resolution and allows the use of lower energy beam excitation. The experiments presented use (red) deposited on a (green) substrate with excitation in the low killovolt range. The method demonstrated, however, is extendable to a full red‐green‐blue triplet composed of a wide variety of materials. The screens are particularly applicable to small, low‐power formats, such as avionics and instrumentation displays.