Secondary electron emission characteristics of dielectric materials in AC-operated plasma display panels

From the measurement of the ion-induced secondary electron emission yield γ
i
it was shown that with increasing γ
i
of the dielectric panel material the firing voltage of an ac gas discharge display panel decreased. The measurement of the energy distributflon of the secondary electrons showed that the dielectric material with higher γ
i
has lower most-probable energy (MPE), and half-width (HW) values. The energy distribution introduced by Stolz in the ease of secondary electrons emitted from a metal was applied to the dielectric panel material and solved by using a computer. From this result, it was shown that the lower the electron affinity of the dielectric panel material, the higher is the γ
i
. Under the condition when γ
i
became greater than unity, unstable self-sustained emission was observed even though the primary ion beam was cut off.