Understanding and improving electroluminescence in mill-ground ZnS : Cu,Cl phosphors

Abstract

We demonstrate that lightly milled ZnS : Cu,Cl phosphors produce AC electroluminescence (EL) emission in devices half as thick and produce up to 5 times the light output as the thinnest devices made with unground phosphors. We also establish minimum and maximum bounds on micro-milling conditions for producing powders that are still viable for AC EL. To understand the cause of the minimum size, we report extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements on phosphors sorted by particle size. The EXAFS data show that grinding preferentially damages the initially embedded CuS nano-precipitate. This suggests that grinding cleaves the ZnS : Cu through the embedded CuS nano-precipitates, leaving the CuS nano-precipitates on the surface to be further broken apart by continued grinding, eventually reducing the effectiveness of the CuS-induced electric field enhancement.