Spatiotemporal behaviors of excited Xe atoms in unit discharge cell of ac-type plasma display panel studied by laser spectroscopic microscopy

Two-dimensional spatiotemporal behaviors of excited Xe atoms in the ${\text{1s}}_4$ resonance state and the ${\text{1s}}_5$ metastable state were measured in a unit discharge cell of an ac-type plasma display panel by a laser absorption technique combined with an optical microscope. The measured density of $\mathrm{Xe}{\text{(1s}}_5)$ has two large peaks on both the temporal anode and cathode sides. The peak at the anode has a narrower spatial distribution while the peak at the cathode is distributed over the electrode area. In its temporal behavior, the anode peak rises slightly faster than the peak at the cathode and decays faster at the beginning of afterglow, but both peaks tend to have the same decay rate in the later period. The behavior of $\mathrm{Xe}{\text{(1s}}_4)$ shows similar features, but the decay rate is much larger, corresponding to the effective lifetime of imprisoned resonance radiation. The maximum densities of $\mathrm{Xe}{\text{(1s}}_5)$ and $\mathrm{Xe}{\text{(1s}}_4)$ are ${\text{5×10}}^{13}$ and ${\text{2×10}}^{13}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\text{−3}},$ respectively. Emission from $\mathrm{Xe}\text{(2p)}$ atoms was also observed, and this nearly followed the current wave form. With these results, we estimated the efficiency of vacuum ultraviolet emissions from excited $\mathrm{Xe}{\text{(1s}}_4)$ atoms and ${\mathrm{Xe}}_2^{*}$ excimers formed from $\mathrm{Xe}{\text{(1s}}_5)$ atoms.