Initiation of breakdown in a 3-electrode plasma display panel cell

Summary form only given. Breakdown in an AC Plasma Display Panel (PDP) cell depends upon the electrode geometry and voltages, the initial wall charge, secondary emission coefficient, and the gas pressure and composition. Secondary electrons, ejected by ion impact on a dielectric-coated cathode, accelerate in the strong fields of the cathode fall, generating an avalanche of ionization events. The ions generated accelerate toward the cathode, sustaining the secondary current. When the electric field gradient is large over an electron scattering mean free path, electrons are not tied to the field lines, resulting in a spatial distribution of ionization-generated ions returning to the cathode. In this work, we consider a simple 3 electrode structure with a neon-xenon gas mixture. Using a Monte Carlo technique with the XOOPIC code, the ion distribution functions are mapped along the secondary emitting dielectric surface for the initial fields. An amplification factor can be defined along the secondary emitting surface which can be coupled with the spatial distribution of the ion flux. This technique provides a description of the initiation of the breakdown, including the locations where the discharge is amplified. The technique is readily extended to include mapping the amplification factor for discharges in progress, by including immobile space charge and surface charge.