Effective secondary electron yield of a cathode for plasma display panel

In order to improve the discharge characteristics of a plasma display panel (PDP), the availability gamma'/gamma of the secondary electrons from the PDP cathodes is investigated, which is determined by the back-diffusion effect in the discharge gas. We carried out a Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) under conditions which,were varied: the gas composition, the initial energy distribution of emitted electrons due to ions and metastable atoms incident on the metal or insulator cathode, and the electron reflectivity at the cathode. The calculated values of gamma'/gamma are 0.1-0.95 for ions and metastable atoms under the typical operational condition of the AC- and DC-type PDPs. It is found that the low-energy electrons emitted by Xe ions and metastable atoms have considerable availability even from low reduced electric field E/p. The data obtained in this work may be useful for the discharge simulation and the design of PDP.