Contents I. Introduction
Alternating current plasma display panel (AC PDP) is preponderant in the large flat panel display market, owing to the high luminance, high contrast, wide viewing angle, and so on, but it still needs further improvement in luminous efficiency and electrical power consumption [1], [2]. Generally, the front plate of a commercial AC PDP is composed of electrodes, dielectric layer, and a MgO protective layer. In the past years, many papers focused on the improvement of protective layer such as a doped MgO layer [3], [4], a double protective layer [5]–[7], and new materials instead of MgO protective layer [8], [9]. Recently, our group has investigated the discharge characteristics of electron-beam evaporated thin film coated on a dielectric layer [10]. As an excellent cathode material with low work function (2.3–3.2 eV), low resistivity, and low sputtering yield, thin film presented much lower firing voltages and shorter discharge delay time compared with the pure MgO thin films. Another advantage of is the high chemical and mechanical stabilities, which can improve the life of AC PDP. Ono et al. fabricated pure films in AC PDP instead of MgO protective layer [11]. In their research, no degradation of the cathode was found when the films were exposed in the air directly for a month or more, while MgO film was contaminated in air. It is noticeable that the above protective layer structure was, however, different from that in our research and its discharge characteristics were not discussed in detail.
