Basic kinetic processes in neon gas discharge displays

Sahni, Lanza, and Howard have carried out a numerical simulation of ac discharges in high pressure neon Penning mixtures for conditions typical of plasma panel displays [1]. Their work has provided valuable insight regarding the electrical characteristics of such devices. However, relatively little is known about the specific factors affecting the radiative properties of neon plasma displays. The present work focuses on this aspect of the problem by analyzing the production and loss processes controlling the populations of the ten levels of the Ne(2p
j
) manifold, which are the primary source of radiation in the visible region of the spectrum. Time integrated radiative intensities of the thirty Ne 2p
j
-1s
j
transitions in the 5400-8082-Å range were computed and were found to be in good agreement with measured values obtained using, several plasma panel displays.