To improve light emission efficiency and to obtain high-luminance external radiation light by irradiating a phosphor layer with electron beams emitted from an electron source without waste and uniformly and radiating light which is emitted over all the phosphor layer, to the outside without shielding the light.

A vacuum container is formed from a glass tube 2 as a transparent base material which projects light to the outside, and a glass substrate 3 at a basal plane side. A cathode electrode 4 in which an electron emission source 5 is embedded, an acceleration electrode plate 6 and an anode plate 7 in which a phosphor layer 8 is deposited are disposed on the glass substrate 3. An electric field is then applied from the acceleration electrode plate 6 to the electron emission source 5, an electron beam 9 is emitted, and the phosphor layer 8 is excited/emitted. Since the phosphor layer 8 is excited by almost all the electron beams 9 emitted from the electron emission source 5 and only a vacuum space is interposed between the phosphor layer 8 and the glass tube 2, strong light emitted on the excited surface of the phosphor layer 8 is radiated from the glass tube 2 to the outside without being shielded. Therefore, the quantity of light can be significantly increased while suppressing power consumption.