Study on structure and discharge characteristics of MgO films in plasma display panel

The MgO dielectric protective films, used in plasma display panel (PDP) and grown by electron beam evaporation at different substrate temperature and deposition rate, are studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and firing-voltage test in this paper. The results show that the (111) preferential orientation is always observed in MgO films at all substrate temperature and deposition rates, which presents two kinds of structure with different crystal-plane spacing, i.e. one with a crystal-plane spacing approximate to the conventional polycrystalline MgO and another with 1% shrinkage rate of crystal-plane spacing compared to the conventional polycrystalline MgO. The former is observed to have a stronger (111) peak and a lower firing voltage than the latter in which the lattice distortion occurs. It is also show that the higher substrate temperature and deposition rate tend to form (111) with larger shrinkage of crystal panel spacing.