Have there been any attempts to make something like a CRT with phosphors and an electron gun in a thinner form factor? What if we had a grid of smaller electron beams targeting a small display section instead of a single large one? Can it be done without vacuum tubes today?
Yes, that’s basically what a plasma TV is.
But they were killed by the low cost of LCDs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-emission_display
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-conduction_electron-em...