Reduction of the firing voltage in plasma display panels calls for electrode coatings with a high secondary-electron yield. We have explored a range of materials that exhibit very low firing voltages, and a 50% reduction has been achieved relative to the best quality MgO. It is further shown that a high electron emission yield originates from both ion- and photon-induced processes, and is strongly influenced by the electronic structure of the material in terms of band gap and electron affinity.

High-Tc superconducting thin films were prepared by DC sputtering. Contrary to diode sputter methods, in the triode configuration applied here no compositional adjustment of the ceramic YBa2Cu3Ox target appeared necessary. SrTiO3 (100) was the best substrate found so far. After an onset at Tco = 92 K, we found a complete superconductive transition at Tcf = 86 K. At the transition a five-order decrease in resistivity could be measured. On other substrates such as Al2O3, MgO and ZrO2 relatively poor results were obtained. Characterization was performed by SEM, x-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattering (RBS).