One-dimensional fluid simulations of a helium - xenon filled ac colour plasma flat panel display pixel

One-dimensional (1D) fluid simulations are used to model a helium-xenon filled ac plasma display pixel. The model includes four levels for helium atomic states, seven levels for xenon atomic states and a xenon dimer state. The model also includes VUV emission including photon trapping due to collisional broadening from the resonant atomic xenon at wavelengths of 129 nm and 147 nm and from non-resonant emission by the xenon dimer molecule peaked at 173 nm. Simulations are performed for a gap width (d) of 100 microns at a pressure (P) of 400 Torr using varying xenon concentrations. At low xenon concentrations, emission is primarily in the 147 nm wavelength but shifts toward the xenon dimer above about 20% xenon in the mixture. At 2% xenon, the calculated VUV emission is about 85% from the resonant atomic xenon state at 147 nm, about 13% from the dimer and about 2% from the resonant 129 nm line. Emission from the 129 nm line is insignificant due to collisional quenching of the xenon states. The discharge efficiency, defined as the VUV photons/watt dissipated, increases with xenon content with an optimum at about 30% xenon. For opposed electrode geometry, as the xenon concentration is increased from 2% to X% xenon, the simulations show that the applied voltages scale approximately as . At a fixed Pd, a higher pressure yields more VUV emission than using a larger gap width.