Understanding Degradation of Doped Electroluminescent ZnS Phosphors

ABSTRACTWe have shown recently that the degradation of AC electroluminescence (EL) in ZnS:Cu,Cl and similar phosphors can be significantly reversed by a short anneal near 200°C. To better understand the degradation/rejuvenation processes, we investigated EL degradation and rejuvenation under different conditions. To probe for changes in the local atomic structure about the Cu sites, we collected Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) data at the Cu K-edge EXAFS data for several as-made, thermally degraded (240°C anneal), and EL degraded powders.