Nanoscale continuous In2O3 coating on phosphor particles for improved low-voltage cathodoluminescent properties

A nanoscale continuous coating of In2O3 on phosphors for low-voltage display applications is proposed in which the electrical conductivity of phosphor screen plays a major role. The effect of In2O3 coating by the sol-gel method on the cathodoluminescence (CL) of ZnGa2O4:Mn phosphors improves the intensity of low-voltage CL noticeably compared with that of In2O3 mixing. It is understood that electrically conductive channels are formed by a much smaller amount of In2O3 addition than that of In2O3 mixing. Especially, based on transmission electron microscopy analysis, the formation of uniform nanoscale continuous In2O3, layers on the phosphor surface was confirmed. Also, the structural and CL characterizations presented in this paper clearly demonstrate that the nanoscale encapsulation of In2O3 layers on phosphors served as protective layers retarding the CL degradation introduced by the low-energy electron irradiation, which is critically important for the development of low-voltage display applications.