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Electroluminescent Thin Film Phosphors

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Thin Film Structures in Energy Applications

Abstract

In the later part of the twentieth century, classic cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are replaced by flat panel displays (FPDs) with a thinner, smaller size and with a significant reduction in power consumption. Such displays are currently used in several applications including mobile phones, laptops, and televisions. Among other FPDs, electroluminescent displays perform better than its counterparts such as liquid crystal, field emission, and plasma displays. Electroluminescent (EL) display is a common term for devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), powder phosphor devices, thin film, and thick dielectric electroluminescent devices. Thin film EL devices (TFEL) show advantages such as quick response, high resolution, wide viewing angles and wide operating temperatures and so on. TFEL displays are all solid state and based on electroluminescence in which luminescent material gives light under high electric field.

Phosphors act as luminescent materials both in powder as well as in thin film forms in these devices. ZnS doped with Mn is one of the earliest and still in use electroluminescent phosphor. Monochrome display was developed using ZnS:Mn sandwiched between single or double multi-stack dielectric layers. An efficient yellow emission was generated when a high voltage was applied between front indium tin oxide (ITO) and rear aluminium (Al) electrodes. Multiple color displays were then achieved by combination of different rare earth-doped ZnS layers emitting different colors. Similar displays were developed more efficiently with other materials. Mostly oxides, sulphides, and fluorides are highly preferred host for such phosphors because of wider bandgap that allows the transmission of visible light. Oxides have been found to have more stability compared to sulphides which suffer degradation under high electron bombardment due to sulphur depletion.

TFEL phosphors have been grown by physical vapour deposition techniques such as pulsed laser deposition, sputtering, and chemical reaction techniques such as spray pyrolysis, chemical vapour deposition, sol–gel process followed by spraying, dipping, or spinning. Over the years, extensive research has been carried out to develop multi-color TFEL devices using combination of red, green, blue emitting phosphors. Optimum growth techniques, dopant concentration, choice of rare earths, and hosts have been investigated and led to the production of efficient, high luminance display devices. This chapter introduces basics of phosphors, minimum requirements to be an efficient phosphor, different fabrication techniques, and a review of different color electroluminescent phosphors for display devices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Samuel Paul David & Romain Gaume

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  1. Samuel Paul David
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  2. Romain Gaume
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Correspondence to Samuel Paul David .

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  1. Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry, India

    Suresh Babu Krishna Moorthy

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David, S.P., Gaume, R. (2015). Electroluminescent Thin Film Phosphors. In: Babu Krishna Moorthy, S. (eds) Thin Film Structures in Energy Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14774-1_8

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