Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a gas discharge panel, where the conversion efficiency of discharge energy into visible rays and the panel brightness are improved, with the color purity being improved as far as possible. To achieve this object, in a gas discharge panel, the pressure of discharge gas is set in a range of 800-4000 Torr, that is higher than a conventional gas pressure. Also, a rare gas mixture including helium, neon, xenon, and argon is used as discharge gas charged into discharge spaces, instead of conventional discharge gas. Here, it is preferable that the proportion of Xe is set to 5% by volume or less, that of Ar 0.5% by volume or less, and that of He under 55% by volume. With this rare gas mixture, the light-emission efficiency is improved, with the firing voltage being suppressed.

Abstract: A surface-discharge type display device is provided that can reduce power consumption during sustain discharge and suppress the occurrence of illumination failures. A display electrode and a display scan electrode are aligned on a substrate, and a dielectric layer is formed on the substrate so as to cover the display electrode and the display scan electrode. An area having a lower relative permittivity than the dielectric layer is formed in an area surrounded on three sides by the display electrode, the display scan electrode, and the substrate. The dielectric layer allows sufficient wall charges for surface discharge to be accumulated, whereas the lower relative permittivity area allows the capacitance between the display electrode and the display scan electrode to be decreased. Accordingly, the power consumption during sustain discharge is reduced without causing illumination failures.

Abstract: A PDP does not suffer from dielectric breakdown even though a dielectric layer is thin, with the problems of conventional PDPs, such as cracks appearing in the glass substrates during the production of the PDP being avoided. To do so, the surface of silver electrodes of the PDP is coated with a 0.1-10 .mu.m layer of a metallic oxide on whose surface OH groups exist, such as ZnO, ZrO.sub.2, MgO, TiO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, and Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3. The metallic oxide layer is then coated with the dielectric layer. It is preferable to form the metallic oxide layer with the CVD method. The surface of a metallic electrode can be coated with a metallic oxide, which is than coated with a dielectric layer. The dielectric layer can be made of a metallic oxide with a vacuum process method or the plasma thermal spraying method. The dielectric layer formed on electrodes with the CVD method is remarkably thin and flawless.

Abstract: A beam emitted from a light source including the characteristic wavelength of flown particles in a film forming system is interrupted by a beam chopper in a predetermined cycle, and is then divided into a probing beam and a reference beam by a beam divider. The probing beam passes through a particle flight area and is then injected into a photo detector through an optical filter, and a probing signal is outputted. A reference signal is obtained from the reference beam in the same manner. A data processor detects the phase and level of both signals, so that an absorbance, i.e., a film forming rate for the flown particles is estimated. The film forming rate is integrated with time so that a film thickness is estimated. Thus, the range of the applicable film forming rate is wide.