Discharge characteristics and the analysis of a hollow cathode for a gas-discharge display panel

In the course of developing the gas-discharge display panel, the researchers investigated the discharge characteristics of a tiny hollow cathode operated under medium gas pressure and ascertained the presence of the ’’hollow-cathode effect’’. Under optimum conditions the cathode fall was lower by about 30%, and one order higher current density could be supplied than with a single plane cathode of the same size. Next, the experimental results were analyzed to obtain a few fundamental discharge parameters, in which the formulations of the cathode-fall characteristics in the cylindrical hollow cathod were given in advance. Thus the macroscopic hollow-cathode effect could be reduced quantitatively to the microscopic but comprehensive physical quantity Γ.